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Progressives’ ‘good cause eviction’ bill spells doom for NYC housing
By Howard Husock
March 24, 2023 8:18pm Updated

NYC skyline
The "good cause" bill would prohibit evictions if rents become
"unreasonable" -- specifically, raised by more than 3% or 1.5% above the
Consumer Price Index, as determined once a year.
Getty Images/iStockphoto
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It’s hard to imagine making New York City’s housing market even worse,
but the progressives in charge of the Legislature aim to do just that.

The city has more public and subsidized “affordable” housing (both in
total and per capita) than any other — yet it’s in a perennial housing
crisis. Nearly a million apartments are “rent-stabilized” — under a
regime so onerous and discouraging of investment that some 60,000 are
just being left vacant by their owners, rather than lose money on them.

Nor is there a way up and out for squeezed tenants: Thanks to zoning and
NIMBY-ism, New York state as a whole has built less new housing than
even other Northeastern states, let alone Texas and Florida.

Now the progressives want to distort this housing “market” even more.

Their “good cause eviction” proposal threatens to discourage new housing
and drive existing landlords out of the business altogether.

That would probably please the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Julia Salazar
of Brooklyn, a proud Democratic Socialist.

But she’s far from alone: Both the Assembly and state Senate proposed
budgets include the idea.

Kathy Hochul
Kathy Hochul has pushed for more housing developments in suburban areas.
Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul
Obvious good causes for eviction include not paying the rent, or causing
disturbances.

But that’s not what the “good cause” bill has in mind. It would prohibit
evictions if rents become “unreasonable” — specifically, raised by more
than 3% or 1.5% above the Consumer Price Index, as determined once a year.

This is statewide rent control by another name — with all the
distortions it brings with it.

SEE ALSO
KATHY HOCHUL
EDITORIAL
Beware NY progressives’ push for universal rent control
In a period of raging inflation, a snapshot of the Consumer Price Index
may well not reflect a property owner’s rising costs over the course of
the year. Not that progressives are concerned about the costs of the
numerous small, “mom and pop” landlords, many of whom are new immigrants
using property ownership to aid their upward mobility.

A 2019 law barred rent increases in regulated units even if owners have
to make major capital repairs.

The cost of a new roof must come out of their profits — even if they
have none.

That’s why units are being left vacant.

More broadly, controlling rents suppresses price signals, the means
through which supply and demand are balanced.

It encourages tenants to stay longer in apartments larger than what they
might need — limiting the turnover that a healthy market needs.

That’s why you can find aging Baby Boomers knocking around in Upper West
Side apartments with empty bedrooms, while young New Yorkers are doubled
up in shoeboxes.

Julia Salazar
Julia Salazar’s bill would ban landlords from evicting tenants without
“good cause.”
Paul Martinka
New York University’s Furman Center has found that rent-regulated
tenants remain in their units three times as long as those in
non-regulated units — and are better off, as well.

Rent limits are also why there are long waiting lists for public housing
units; more than a quarter of current tenants are “overhoused”— meaning
they, too, have more bedrooms than they need.

Housing “advocates” believe we should effectively transfer property
rights from owners to tenants and let the latter stay put as long as
they’d like — and even pass along their apartment to younger family members.

Their model is the city’s dilapidated public-housing system, where tens
of thousands of residents have lived in their units for more than 40 years.

Salazar and her fellow travelers have a dread of gentrification — the
wealthier driving out the poor from the Brooklyn neighborhoods she
represents.

Reality check: There are a limited number of hedge fund managers even in
New York, and lots of them are following Citadel’s Ken Griffin to Miami,
as New York has apparently made “tax the rich” its official state slogan.

Moreover, property owners in many parts of the state — think depressed
Syracuse, Rochester or Utica — are not likely to be keen to evict a
tenant having trouble paying the rent; there may not be another one
ready to move in.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, to her credit, has promoted the idea of new housing
construction in New York’s suburbs — a good way to lower prices when so
many state residents are fleeing and the population has fallen.

Ken Griffin
Ken Griffin led the charge for wealthy New Yorkers to move down to Florida.
Getty Images
But she pushed an idea guaranteed to inspire maximum resistance — a
state super-zoning board that could override local decisions.

That’s predictably inspired pushback. She needs to find the right mix of
incentives to persuade, rather than coerce — a challenge for tight
housing markets across the country.

To her discredit, Hochul might cave to the Legislature and sign a budget
that includes “good cause eviction” regulation to get the rest of her
plan passed, too.

81
What do you think? Post a comment.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will seek the presidency on the basis of what
he’s done to make his state a magnet for newcomers.

Meanwhile, Empire State lawmakers are doing all they can to make their
state ever less attractive.

Howard Husock is an American Enterprise Institute senior fellow.

FILED UNDER AFFORDABLE HOUSING HOUSING JULIA SALAZAR KATHY HOCHUL
LEGISLATURE OPINION RENT CONTROL 3/24/23
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Conversation81 Comments
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Best
Larry E
25 March, 2023

I own several rentals. during the pandemic rents were controlled but
taxes, sewage, water and insurance all went up. If I couldn't raise
rents why could they raise taxes??

2 replies
C C
24 March, 2023

Rent control just incentivizes property owners to just sell, rather than
rent. So now, that 2 bedroom unit will go for sale at $890,000 instead
of renting at $1900 per month. And that helps lower income folks how????

1 reply
ECB
24 March, 2023

Maybe that's the plan? Create housing vacancies by making the state so
intolerable that millions depart.

Share
Mike Palmer
26 March, 2023

It very well may be the plan, but the problem is all the productive
people will be the ones to leave. NY will turn into Detroit. Honestly,
I think it's pretty much a forgone conclusion NY is going to turn into
Detroit, given how deeply the Leftist-Progressive brainwashing has
impacted 51% of NY'e...