With no plans by the governor or the state legislature to extend the eviction moratorium beyond this weekend, state leaders are encouraging renters who are in arrears to try a new approach.
If they apply for back rent under the state’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program, they are safe from eviction, temporarily. The problem is that the ERAP fund, approved last year, currently has no money.
What You Need To Know
- On Saturday, the statewide eviction moratorium is expected to expire as planned with no action from the legislature
- State officials urge those in arrears to apply for the rental assistance program, which will forestall eviction
- Housing advocates instead are pushing a bill known as “Good Cause Eviction,” which offers more long-term protections for tenants
“We can open a portal, people can sign up, but that also hinges on the federal government doing what we want them to do, which is allocate more money to this pot of money,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday.
.@GovKathyHochul says the eviction moratorium will likely expire Saturday as planned without interdiction from her office or the State Legislature. “That is concluding,” she says
— Zack Fink (@ZackFinkNews) January 11, 2022
But rather than pushing for an extension of the moratorium, or urging people to apply for ERAP, housing advocates are taking a different track. They are lobbying the state legislature to approve a bill known as “Good Cause Eviction.”
Critics say that gives tenants new rights to stay in the property, even if owners want them out.
“Good Cause Eviction does not change the definition of ownership,” explained Cea Weaver, of Housing Justice for All, a grassroots organization focusing on housing. “What Good Cause does is it helps level the playing field between renters and landlords in unregulated buildings at the moment of the eviction process. So it says that landlord must have a good reason for eviction. That includes non-payment of rent.”
After both houses of the legislature left Good Cause out of a landmark package of rent reforms passed in 2019, last week the Senate held its first hearing on the bill. It was often contentious.
The efforts to pass Good Cause have included a Twitter campaign, and a letter to Gov. Hochul from members of the legislature, which revealed there are not nearly enough votes in either house now to pass the bill.
“Rental housing was never designed from the premise of promising permanent tenancy,” said Jay Martin, executive director of the Community Housing Improvement Program. “Most folks rent an apartment for several years and then they either matriculate as their family grows or as they change jobs to different housing. This bill is intended to lock people in the current housing they have.”
Hochul has previously declined to say whether she would support the Good Cause. But for the time being, it seems unlikely it will come across her desk, since the legislature has yet to get behind it.
