Updated January 29, 2025 at 11:40 p.m.
The Binghamton City Council voted unanimously to postpone their vote on whether to opt in to New York’s “good cause eviction" law Wednesday night.
Council members sent the legislation to the planning committee to discuss several amendments to the local law, including clearer definitions of what qualifies as a “nuisance” tenant.
"It’s counterintuitive," said Council Member Nate Hotchkiss. "But the fastest most effective way to move forward and make sure these protections are put into place is to have a holdover and refer this to committee,"
The council plans to vote on the law during the next business meeting on February 12.
Original story:
Binghamton could become the latest upstate New York municipality to opt into New York’s “good cause eviction” law. The city council is set to vote on the legislation Wednesday during its business meeting.
The law puts a limit on how much landlords can raise rent at one time. Landlords would not be able to raise rent by more than 10 percent, or 5 percent above inflation, whichever is lower. In Binghamton, rent hikes would be capped at 8.45 percent.
Landlords would still be able to raise the rent past the limit set if they show their property taxes, insurance or expenses went up, or that they made costly repairs to the unit.
The legislation also limits the reasons a landlord can refuse to renew a paying tenant’s lease. Landlords can still evict a tenant who doesn't pay rent, breaks the lease or is a “nuisance.” They can also still not renew a lease if they are taking the unit off the market or want it for their own personal use.
The law would not apply to any new housing built since 2009, or owner-occupied buildings with 10 or fewer units. It also wouldn’t apply to public housing or luxury units with rent higher than 345 percent of the fair market price.
‘I want the option of not renewing the lease’
At a heated town hall held earlier this month, nearly 100 landlords, tenants and community members packed into the city council chambers to weigh in on whether Binghamton should opt into the law.
Landlords who spoke during the town hall were vehemently opposed to it.
Mike Reid, a local landlord, told the city council that currently, it’s almost impossible to evict a nuisance tenant in court. He said because of that, most landlords depend on “holdover” evictions in which landlords terminate a lease.
“We do the holdover evictions because the burden of proof on the landlord for the nuisance evictions is so high,” Reid said. “And in these cases, when you can't win a nuisance eviction, not only does the landlord suffer, but the quality paying tenants also suffer.”
Reid said he is worried the law would add barriers for small landlords. He said he is currently dealing with a problem tenant harassing other renters. But he doesn’t think he would win that nuisance case in court, so his only option is to terminate the lease.
Robert Russell, a landlord on the city’s South Side, told city council he has good relationships with all his tenants and has never had to evict anyone. But he feels New York’s tenant protections are already strong.
“I want the option of not renewing the lease. That's different from evicting the person,” Russell said. “I feel that it's very different from evicting the person. They may be paying the rent every month, but I want that option not to renew that lease.”
Rachel Miller, a lawyer at Asward & Ingraham LLP, who represents landlords in court, argued the law would have a negative impact on tenants and landlords.
“You're going to prevent landlords from even renting from low-income individuals, because they know that now their rights are limited and they cannot get tenants out,” Miller said.
‘We don't want our citizens afraid to contact code enforcement’
In 2024, there were 910 eviction filings through Binghamton City Court. Around 62 percent of filings successfully resulted in a warrant for eviction.
About 75 percent of 2024 eviction filings were nonpayment cases, while about 25 percent were holdover cases.
Tenants and housing advocates told city council that the vagueness of holdover evictions leaves room for exploitative landlords to retaliate or discriminate against tenants.
Willa Payne, an attorney at Legal Services of Central New York, who represents tenants in city court, said over the past 12 years, she has seen people living in housing plagued by code enforcement violations and quality of life issues. But she said many tenants are afraid to report these conditions.
“We don't want that. We don't want our citizens being discriminated against,” Payne said. “We don't want our citizens afraid to contact code enforcement to report quality of life issues because they know the next thing that's coming is a 30, 60, or 90-day eviction notice.”
Payne said the law is tailored to specifically protect tenants against unscrupulous landlords.
“This idea that this is going to severely limit a landlord's ability to get rid of problem tenants is just not accurate,” Payne said. “It's misinformation. Yes, you still have to go to court, and you will have to prove your case just like you have to now.”
Binghamton resident Jasmine Stradford said evictions leave families with few options. She recently experienced homelessness because of an eviction and said she lost everything: her clothes, home, and her children’s belongings.
Stradford said she feels landlords already have more power than tenants, and was taken aback by how many were against the law.
“This is not a solution. It's a stepping stone. So why can't we take a stepping stone to change?” Stradford said. “Because your pockets are going to be harmed? Whoop-de-doo. It's a dime to humanity. Don't sacrifice your humanity for money.”
‘A housing instability and forced displacement issue’
A handful of upstate cities and towns have opted into good cause eviction, which the state passed in 2024. The city of Ithaca adopted the legislation in July.
Local critics of the legislation, including Binghamton Mayor Jared Kraham, have pointed out that the statewide law is relatively new, making it difficult to determine what the impact has been in municipalities that have already adopted it. They say the city should wait until there is more data.
During the town hall earlier this month, City Council Member Robert Cavanaugh said he understands landlords’ concerns that nuisance and lease violation issues are often not addressed, in part because landlords have been able to use holdover lease termination when those cases fail in court.
“This legislation does take away that mechanism, and we're going to have to now live in a system where nuisance issues and lease violation issues do need to be adjudicated by the city court system as the primary means of eviction after non-payment,” Cavanaugh said. “It's going to make the process a little bit sloppier. It's going to require more detailed hearings.”
City Council Member Rebecca Rathmell said she personally has observed over 350 cases in Binghamton’s landlord-tenant court since March. She said she heard landlords refer to tenants as "losers" and "scumbags."
She also referenced a case in which she said a landlord used non-renewal to retaliate against a tenant for reporting poor housing conditions to code enforcement.
“Warrants of eviction are granted legally for arbitrary reasons under holdover every single week in Binghamton,” Rathmell said. “So it's not that this hasn't been considered and that hours haven't been spent observing what these cases look like in real life. What we're doing is trying to represent that we have a housing instability and forced displacement issue, and this law protects tenants from that.”
Rathmell said with homelessness rates spiking, more and more families with children are being impacted by the housing crisis. She argues the issue is becoming increasingly urgent.
“I don't know if any of you have ever helped a 6-year-old decide what of his and his younger sister's belongings need to be packed up in anticipation of moving to a shelter after a holdover eviction resulted in a warrant of eviction,” Rathmell said. “But I have, and I can tell you that experience is tragic.”
A recent report from the New York state comptroller’s office found the number of families experiencing homelessness in the region spiked 72% in the past two years.
The Binghamton City Council is expected to vote on the legislation during its business meeting Wednesday evening.