Good Cause Eviction Passes in Village of New Paltz

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. — The New Paltz Village Board of Trustees unanimously voted to pass Good Cause Eviction on Wednesday Oct. 10 2024. The board passed the law with stringent qualifications for landlord exemptions, satisfying activists and applying the new protections to 1,354 households. 

Good Cause Eviction (GCE) pertains to the rights of tenants, allowing tenants to challenge evictions that occur without “good cause.” According to the law, there are 10 “good causes” that qualify for a termination of a tenancy. These include but are not limited to, the tenant failing to pay a reasonable rent, partaking in illegal activity in the unit, and preventing necessary repairs in the unit. The landlord can also evict if they seek to demolish the property, take it off the housing market, or reposes the property to use as a primary residence. The law additionally prevents rent increases of more than 5% plus the current CPI measurement, or up to 10% total. To learn more about the specifics of the bill, click here. 

The board passed the law in a unanimous vote. Two specific details of the bill, the portfolio size exemption and the defining of “high rent” were the focus of the activists present. Both of those issues were addressed directly by Village of New Paltz Mayor Tim Rodgers who read the proposed bill to activists. “It says, define small landlord to mean a landlord of no more than on unit anywhere in the State of New York…” This is the exact limitation that activists wanted placed on the portfolio size exemption. According to them, this prevents a loophole in which landlords can skirt GCE protections by establishing multiple LLCs for their properties. Additionally, had this number been set higher, at say 10 units rather than one, activists claim that a large portion of Village of New Paltz residents would not have been included.  

As for “high rent” apartments Rodgers also concurred with activists stating: “[The bill] says such a unit has a monthly rent above 345% of Fair Market Rent as calculated as provided in Article 6A of the real property law.” This definition of “high rent” would exclude only tenants of luxury housing and is high enough that activists state it will prevent landlords from raising rents to meet the new standard.

Upon the law's passing, many of the village board broke out in cheers and claps. Village hall, which was full of activists from the non-profit political advocacy group, For The Many, along with other housing activists from the Hudson Valley, some of which carried signs and sheets of talking points, celebrated the passage of GCE. 

Activist’s were not the only people celebrating, Deputy Mayor Alexandria Wojcik stated in a public Instagram post from Oct. 9 2024  “I’ve dedicated my whole heart and soul these past 4+ years to passing this legislation here because I believe tenants and landlords need a better road map to navigate end-of-lease terms — because the end of a tenancy is ever-looming for we renters,” she continued. “I also believe that our community needs to work harder to achieve a fairer distribution of power between landlords and tenants and that it is my job as the government to work on local legislation that addresses those power dynamics”

GCE will come into effect immediately. Wojcik along with activists, believe it to be only the first step in the fight for providing tenants with the rights that activists believe they deserve.  

“Good Cause Eviction is only one tool, and it won’t solve all our problems, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t try to equip our tenants and landlords with as many tools as possible,” stated Wojcik 

New Paltz Village Board of Trustee meetings are open to the public and happen on the first and third Wednesday of every month. They are also live streamed on the village’s YouTube channel, and summaries of notable meetings are written and uploaded to the New Paltz Principle.