With a state level policy now a reality, Kingston is poised to pass a local law which would revive tenant protections known as good-cause eviction at the upcoming meeting of the full common council on June 4.
Introduced by alders Michele Hirsch and Michael Tierney, the local law was passed by last week’s Community Development and Housing Committee. Councilmembers Steve Schabot, Sara Pasti, Teryl Mickens and Andrea Shaut helped the pair tighten up the language before the vote.
The council was forced to repeal the good-cause tenant protections previously enacted in Kingston in 2022 because of the possible legal and financial liabilities that would have posed to the city after a string of court losses suffered by other river cities which had championed similar tenant protections.
Council members say that this time around though, things will be different. Rather than adopting a municipal law vulnerable to pre-emption, the council intends to invoke the newly enshrined state-level tenant protections.
The first good-cause law among the cities, Local Law F in Albany, was also the first to be overturned. Newburgh’s good-cause eviction laws went next. Good-cause eviction language made it into the state budget on April 20. State senator Julia Salazar’s bill attracted 24 co-sponsors in the state senate and 53 co-sponsors in the assembly, senator Michelle Hinchey’s and assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha’s among them.
Substantial changes to the language were necessary in order to avoid a gubernatorial veto. The most significant change was that municipalities interested in good-cause protections had first to opt in.
The bill’s definition for small landlords — a group specifically exempted — was stretched to include those landlords who own ten or fewer buildings. And, in an acknowledgement to the governor’s preference for incentivizing the creation of new housing stock, a proviso was included that good-cause eviction laws would not affect new construction for 30 years.
“There’s a lot more exemptions in this [state] law than were in our version of it when we passed it two years ago,” Hirsch said. “Anything from 2009 onward is exempt. Anything built today or tomorrow is exempt. This whole thing actually sunsets in ten years.”
The 36 members of the public who came to speak on the subject at the first common council meeting in Kingston after the passage of the state budget spoke as though they had been made aware of the watered-down language. Many took issue with the law’s designation of a small landlord as one who possessed ten or more buildings, deriding that characterization.
“I ask that y’all put good cause into play,” said Katrina Houser, a Kingston resident who said she had experienced homelessness after an eviction in 2023, “so that it can help us that aren’t in seven unit buildings and five
unit buildings. Even if was just two units, we need protection too.”
During the Community Development and Housing Committee meeting, Hirsch and Tierney addressed the definition of small landlord. “I would say that I am in favor of protecting dwelling units with two or more units,” said Hirsch, “because that number of units, one-to-four units, is our largest percentage of housing buildings in the city, and about 60 percent of the buildings in Kingston.”
Alder Sara Pasti appreciated knowing that 60 percent of the units were small, “so that’s a lot of our tenants.”
Another facet of the state law, the annual rent increase allowable before a tenant facing eviction could have grounds to legally challenge that action, drew skepticism from freshman alder Teryl Mickens.
“If a landlord gives a new lease with an increase above 8.45 percent,” said Hirsch, “then that is the trigger for a tenant to dispute the renewal.”
“Is that an annual increase?” asked Mickens. “That seems high.”
Even with its imperfections, the adoption of the local law to opt-in seems likely.
Some 18.9 percent of Kingston residents live below the poverty line, and 42 percent of housing units in the city are rentals. Over half the renters in the city are rent-burdened.
Speaking before the full council, Howard Weiss, a tenant hotline worker, summed up the need he felt for a prohibition against eviction without good cause, sharing his experience talking to those facing eviction.
“The common thread that runs through almost all of their experiences is fear,” said Weiss. “Fear of losing their homes and not being able to find or afford a new place to live.”
The first of two readings to allow for public comment on the local law will be at the next common council meeting on June 4. Mayor Steve Noble has indicated his support.
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