Joan Siest says she’s been harassed out of her apartment before.
“He was really bad,” she said of her last landlord. “He screamed [at] me. I said, ‘What the heck is he screaming for?’”
Instead of fighting to stay in her home, she gathered her belongings and left.
What You Need To Know
- Landlords and tenants are debating local legislation that would only allow landlords in Poughkeepsie to evict tenants for certain reasons
- The reasons include: nonpayment of rent, nuisances, committing crimes in rented units and damaging the unit
- Councils in New Paltz, Kingston and Beacon are considering similar measures
“I was angry with him, and I didn’t want to get stressed,” she said, explaining why she and her husband moved from the home. “That’s why I moved here again.”
Siest wanted it made clear that she is pleased with her current landlord and considers the landlord her friend.
Still, she supports City Council legislation that, if passed, would only allow landlords in Poughkeepsie to evict tenants for certain reasons. Those reasons include: nonpayment of rent, nuisances, committing crimes and damaging the unit.
A landlord of a building containing fewer than 12 units could also displace tenants due to “immediate and compelling necessity” to house members of the landlord’s family.
A landlord with a building containing fewer than five units would be able to displace all tenants only to personally occupy the building.
Some landlords have taken issue with a section of the legislation that caps rent increases at 5% per year.
Supporters of the legislation said the cap would keep landlords from pricing tenants out of homes.
At a public hearing Monday, landlord Mark Carassone told the council he does not want to increase a tenant’s rent by more than 5%, but sometimes he has no other option. He said yearly taxes on just one of his properties increased by $27,000, and he needs to make up for that cost somehow.
“How do you balance your budget sheet?” he said. “You can’t reduce your insurance. You can’t fire employees. You can’t defer maintenance. You can’t impede on safety. No, you have to increase your rents.”
Housing activist Fatimah Santiago reminded the council and landlords not to forget about tenants’ budgets, especially when an emergency drains a family’s savings.
“This is a struggle. When you’re living on a tight budget, paycheck to paycheck, sometimes, emergencies occur,” she said in the hearing. “The unfortunate reality is that sometimes these emergencies can put you at risk of losing your home.”
Landlords are also upset that the Poughkeepsie legislation would force them to go through the courts to remove a tenant for any of the reasons listed in the legislation.
They said at the hearing that with one eviction process lasting several months, they would not be able to afford the losses during the waiting period and could be forced to sell off properties.
Councils in New Paltz, Kingston and Beacon are considering similar measures.
