The Community Service Society of New York’s (CSS) annual Unheard Third survey finds a rise in eviction attempts and a return to assembly-line style justice in NYS Housing Courts. Most notably, New York City entered 2023 with more than 260,000 eviction cases filed in its five housing courts.
From 2020 to 2021, New York held off a sharp increase in evictions with rental assistance programs and an eviction moratorium. With the end of the moratorium in early 2022, eviction filings climbed sharply. It is not as if no one saw it coming.
Since 2018, CSS has worked with Housing Justice for All on enacting Good Cause Eviction protection in New York State. We have advocated strongly for Good Cause because it would provide tenants with a baseline right to remain in their homes by prohibiting non-renewals and no-fault evictions unless a landlord proves good cause.
Today, a record number of people are experiencing homelessness. While CityFHEPS can be a powerful tool against homelessness, the program is plagued with issues that must be addressed.
2022 was a brutal year for rents in New York. Rents went up nearly universally. While rent stabilized tenants had limits on how much their rents could rise, market-rate tenants had none — in large part because the state legislature failed to pass Good Cause, a bill that would allow tenants to challenge unconscionably large rent increases in court.
CSS applauds Governor Hochul for signing legislation that prohibits hospital facility fees for all preventative care and require hospital-affiliated providers in the state to inform patients in advance if they will be charged one
The Fair Chance for Housing Act is a bill to both lessen homelessness and boost racial equality, but it is also a public safety bill.
The 2021 Housing and Vacancy Survey (HVS) showed a disturbing trend: the city’s housing stock is becoming both more expensive and more rundown. We spoke about 5 recommendations before the NYC Council Committee on Housing and Buildings.
We encourage HCR to enact rules and regulations that are in line with the legislations’ goals to protect and geographically expand rent regulation, shield tenants from unlawful rent increases, and preserve New York’s low-rent housing stock.
Kingston’s rental housing emergency is particularly severe. The state defines a housing emergency as a vacancy rate below 5 percent, and Kingston’s vacancy rate as of June 2022 was a staggeringly low 1.57 percent. This vacancy rate appears to be worsening since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic: in 2020, the vacancy rate was an already shockingly low 1.81 percent.