Press Release
CSS Report Documents Need for Tenant Protections Beyond New York City
Argues for new rental subsidies, expanding rent stabilization laws and reducing unjust evictions
Severe rent burdens and chronic shortages of affordable housing have created a housing market with very few alternatives for low-income tenants throughout urban areas of the state – not just New York City. Other cities like Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, and Troy are experiencing a similar housing crisis that is putting hundreds of thousands of renters at risk of arbitrary evictions, unaffordable rents and homelessness.
A new report by the Community Service Society (CSS) in partnership with Upstate Downstate Housing Alliance and Local Progress examines several dimensions of the housing crisis facing low-income tenants in New York. The report, “Rental Housing Affordability in Urban New York: A Statewide Crisis,” found that renters make up a significant part of New York State, concentrated in more urban areas but facing unaffordable rents in urban, suburban and some rural areas alike.
Overall, more than half of all tenants in New York State are “rent-burdened,” meaning they pay a substantial portion of their income (over 30 percent) as rent. In Albany, for example there are 25,900 renter households, 44 percent of whom have incomes below $25,000 a year. More than half of tenant households there pay more than 30 percent of their income in rent.
According to CSS’s analysis of U.S. Census data, there are very few places in the state where fewer than a third of tenant households are rent burdened. The norm is 45 to 60 percent – comparable to Manhattan and Brooklyn – in urban and suburban areas. Rates above 60 percent – comparable to the Bronx – can be found in Rochester, cities in the Hudson Valley and Southern Tier, and in non-municipal Greene and Suffolk counties, among other places.
In the report, author and CSS Housing Policy Analyst Tom Waters proposes that the state address the current housing crisis with three policy solutions.
First, the state should create “home stability support,” a new rental assistance program aimed at families receiving public assistance or at risk of homelessness and with legislation designed to moderate rent increases and protect unregulated tenants from unjust evictions. Assembly Member Andrew Hevesi and State Senator Liz Krueger have introduced legislation to do this (A1620/S2375)
Second, the Emergency Tenant Protection Act (ETPA) is a powerful tool that currently protects about a million renter households in New York State. Waters argues that by amending the ETPA to allow municipalities beyond New York City and its immediate suburban counties to opt into rent stabilization (if their rental vacancy rates are below five percent), lawmakers can leverage the law to expand this protection to up to 46,500 more households statewide. In Albany, 4,500 apartments could be eligible for rent stabilization if the ETPA is expanded, and 3,100 more could be eligible in Troy. Assembly Member Kevin Cahill and State Senator Neil Breslin have introduced legislation to do this (A7046/S5040).
Third, the state should protect tenants throughout the state from arbitrary eviction by passing a “good cause eviction” law. The law would prohibit evictions not justified by nonpayment of rent, damage to the apartment, creating a nuisance or similar reasons. CSS estimates that such legislation would provide protections to more than 1.6 million households who are currently subject to arbitrary eviction. In Albany, 20,600 houses or apartments would be covered by good cause eviction protections. Assembly Member Pam Hunter and State Senator Julia Salazar have introduced legislation to do this (A5030A/S2892A).
The last two measures – amending the ETPA and enacting a good cause eviction law -- are part of the Universal Rent Control platform of the Upstate Downstate Housing Alliance which also calls for closing destructive loopholes within the rent stabilization law. The alliance also supports the home stability support program.
“Addressing the state’s housing crisis should be just as urgent a policy priority in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and the Capital District as it is in New York City,” said David R. Jones, President and CEO of CSS. “Housing affordability is not a problem limited to New York City as some may think. It affects New Yorkers around the state and fixing it must be a top priority of our state lawmakers.”
"The numbers are clear. Gentrification across New York State is decimating communities, where tenants are losing first quality of life due to high rents, then becoming homeless when the rent goes too high, or when landlords arbitrarily raise rents, or simply evict them. This is not just a New York City issue, it is a statewide issue, particularly outside of the city where landlords have very few, if any, restrictions on evicting tenants at whim. These numbers produced by the Community Service Society are glaring. Not one state legislator or government official can look at these numbers and ignore the fact that the legislation for Good Cause Evictions, S2892/A5030 must be passed and the remaining loopholes in the law must be closed," said Delsenia Glover, Executive Director of Tenants & Neighbors.
"When I moved to the Albany area – an area I do love – I was shocked at the lack of protections for tenants compared to what they have in the NYC area. As a black woman and a single mother, I have received discrimination in a variety of places where I have lived. My landlords could evict me at any moment, and they let me know that in order to stop me from complaining. It makes it so hard to feel safe, even in my own home. New York State needs good cause eviction, and I'm glad to see the housing crisis in Troy, NY finally getting the attention it deserves,” said Tracey Everett, 1199SEIU member, Nursing Home caregiver, and renter in Troy NY
“Tenant protections have been restricted to New York City and its suburbs for too long,” said CSS report author Tom Waters. “There’s another whole urban New York out there, and it’s renter country just like New York City, and the tenants there deserve real protections against excessive rent increases, eviction, and homelessness.”
Summary of the report’s key findings:
- Tenants make up 68 percent of all households in the densest parts of New York City and 59 percent of all households in the densest parts of upstate New York and Suffolk County. The figure is lower at 42 percent in the suburban counties of Nassau, Rockland, and Westchester.
- More than half of all tenants pay more than 30 percent of their income as rent (including utilities) in parts of New York City and the three suburban counties at all density levels, and in the denser parts of upstate New York and Suffolk County (more than 625 households per square mile).
- This pattern reflects the fact that although rents are lower in upstate New York, tenant incomes are lower too, so that rent burdens remain high.
- From 2012 to 2017, New York State lost more than 160,000 apartments affordable to households living at twice the poverty line – 55,000 of them outside New York City and the three suburban counties.
- The fastest rates of loss of this affordable housing were in Suffolk County, the Hudson Valley, New York City, and the North Country.
- If municipalities outside New York City and three suburban counties were allowed to opt in to rent stabilization, their eligibility would be based on special vacancy surveys to be conducted for each municipality. But based on existing data, CSS estimates that between 17,500 and 46,500 apartments within municipalities would ultimately be eligible.
- A “good cause eviction” law could protect 600,000 currently unregulated tenant households in New York City and 1 million in the rest of the state.