Syracuse lawmakers are expected to vote on Good Cause legislation at their next meeting on Feb. 23. If approved, the city would be able to opt-in to the state’s Good Cause Eviction Law, which limits rent increases and provides protections for renters.
Lawmakers last year decided against holding a vote on the legislation, but a new Common Council appears ready to approve it. One of the new members on the council who supports it is Hanah Ehrenreich. She said this local law will protect the more than 60% of Syracuse residents who rent their homes.
"We have made this level of Good Cause legislation apply to pretty much everybody who rents in the city, and that allows for tenants to know universally that they are covered under this legislation," Ehrenreich said. "And that allows them to have the stability that if they are following their lease, and doing as the agreement states, that they don't get a shock increase into their rent, that they don't get a lease cancellation due to punitive reasons, and I think that that is all good for us."
Although Good Cause doesn’t ban evictions, landlords have been opposed to the legislation. They suggest it will tie their hands and disrupt the current balance between renters and landlords. Ehrenreich said she’s listened to concerns and wonders if the city could help landlords in other ways.
"A number of the concerns landlords have voiced to me are about a very broken court system, and I'm wondering if there are ways for the city and county and the state to work together, to fix that as a diversionary court at the local level, like a housing court," she said.
Five councilors have signed on to the legislation, enough votes to pass it. The council’s Neighborhood Preservation Committee will hold a town hall-style meeting on the legislation this Thursday, Feb. 19, at 5:30 p.m. to discuss the issue. Then, because Good Cause is a local law, once lawmakers approve it, Mayor Sharon Owens must hold a public hearing within 20 days, and then has 30 days to sign or veto it. In her State of the City address in January, Owens pledged to support the legislation.
