Rochester City Council to Hold Final Public Hearing on Good Cause Eviction, Housing Advocates Call for Closing Loopholes

Architecture, Rochester, NY. Photo by Yassine Khalfalli on Unsplash

The Rochester City Council is set to hold its final public hearing on the proposed Good Cause Eviction legislation on Tuesday evening. The hearing, aimed at gathering input from tenants, landlords, and community members, will take place at 6 p.m. at the Edgerton R-Center, located at 42 Backus St. No registration is required to attend.

This legislation is designed to offer greater protections to renters in Rochester. If passed, it would require landlords with more than 10 rental units to provide valid reasons, such as nonpayment of rent, illegal use of the unit, or endangering other tenants, before evicting a tenant.

Following the passage of similar legislation by the state legislature earlier this year, and its subsequent signing into law by Governor Hochul, municipalities outside New York City were given the option to adopt it. The bill guarantees a right to lease renewal and limits rent increases to 10% or 5% plus the consumer price index, whichever is lower. The Rochester City Council introduced the local version of this legislation in June.

However, housing advocates, including Ritti Singh, Communications Director for Housing Justice for All—a coalition representing tenants and homeless New Yorkers—argue that the version of the law currently under consideration in Rochester is the weakest in the state. Singh points to the inclusion of an “LLC loophole” in the legislation, which would exempt approximately 17,600 rental units, leaving about 35,000 renters vulnerable to exploitation by landlords.

Singh highlights that other cities like Albany, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, and Ithaca have closed this loophole by limiting the real estate portfolio exemption to just one rental unit. This measure is intended to prevent landlords from circumventing the law by hiding their portfolios behind anonymous Limited Liability Corporations (LLCs). Additionally, these cities have raised the high rent threshold to 345% of Fair Market Rent to create a genuine high rent threshold, discouraging landlords from raising rents solely to bypass the law.

Lisle Coleman, a Tenant Organizer with the City-Wide Tenant Union, emphasized the importance of closing these loopholes to ensure that renters are not unjustly evicted due to landlords seeking higher profits. "We’re fighting to close these loopholes so that everyone in Rochester has the peace of mind that if they’re paying their rent and following the rules, they can stay in their home," Coleman said. "It’s time to make sure that our housing system is fair and that our communities have the stability they deserve."

The hearing, hosted by Council Member Bridget Monroe of the northwest district, will be the last of four public meetings on the Good Cause Eviction legislation. Council Members Kim Smith, Mary Lupien, and Stanley Martin have urged the Council to amend the legislation to align with the stronger protections adopted by other upstate cities.