City tries again to address rising evictions. But its latest attempt exempts most rental properties

Yadira Susseth received the eviction notice from her landlord in March after several years living with her seven children in a half-house on Jefferson Avenue.

The notice set a move out date of June 30. But Susseth is still there, in limbo as she fights the eviction in court knowing a shortage of affordable housing leaves her with limited other options.

“I don’t know what to expect, to be honest with you,” Susseth said. “I’m just taking it one day at a time. This is very hard, extremely hard for me. It’s so overwhelming for me.”

Susseth is one of thousands of Rochesterians facing eviction amid skyrocketing rents fueled by a hot housing market, and despite government efforts to provide some stability and protection for tenants like Susseth.

Those protections only go so far. But a change in state law has served as a beacon of hope for housing advocates.

Earlier this year, Gov. Kathy Hochul approved a statewide Good Cause bill that municipalities can opt into. The bill gives a right to renewal, limits rent increases to 10% or 5% plus the consumer price index, whichever is less.

The city of Rochester is considering the matter, after trying and failing to adopt good cause protections back in 2022. However, the city’s latest effort put forward with unanimous support of City Council is so limited in scope that it excludes thousands of renters —likely including Susseth.

Eviction by the numbers

New York state instituted a moratorium on most evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. But that expired in January 2022, and the number of filings has begun to return to pre-pandemic levels.

Evictions for tenants not paying rent have always been the highest proportion of filings.

But since the end of the moratorium, evictions done for other reasons — including lease non-renewal, dubbed “holdover” evictions — have nearly doubled.

The legal process surrounding evictions historically ended when the tenant found a new place to live and just moved out. But now, the court process is being prolonged, as tenants struggle with the lack of alternatives, said Ryan Acuff of the Rochester City-Wide Tenant Union.

“Basically, people are running the clocks out,” Acuff said. “As opposed to, ‘Oh, I’ll just find a new place’... now, people are just not able to find places.”

That is seen with eviction warrants, or a court order removing a person from a property, which have bounced back to pre-pandemic levels.

Housing advocates have argued rising rents have compounded the issue.

“Baseline rents have absolutely gone up in a noticeable way here in the city,” said Mark Muoio, a housing attorney and former county legislator.

He sees the pricing issue as cyclical. Higher housing prices drive investors to increase rents to maintain a return on investment. Then higher rents attract more investors, driving up prices.

Fair market rent for a one-bedroom apartment increased more than 35% between 2020 and 2024, from $775 to $1,050, according to data from federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

That’s more than three times the increase seen in the previous five years.

“Of course, we want wages to go up,” Acuff said. “But if the rents are unregulated and keep going up, it’s like a treadmill.”

Good Cause

Susseth successfully fought eviction last year and said she since has paid rent on time and not violated the terms of her $850 month-to-month lease. Her landlord, Collins Management, simply opted to not continue extending the lease this time around.

Collins Management’s D’Ondre Collins referred questions to his attorney, John Costello, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“It’s not fair, and it’s scary for me,” Susseth said. “There’s a lot of things I wish were better for me and the kids .... I don’t want to be there forever, I don’t. But what choice do I have?”

This is where the idea of good cause eviction could come into play.

The city’s current proposal is a boilerplate copy of state law, which would exempt landlords who own 10 or fewer units, or whose rent is 245% of the area’s fair market rent, and newer units that came online (received a certificate of occupancy) after Jan. 1, 2009.

Those restrictions would leave many buildings uncovered.

For example, there are 21,728 residential properties in the city that are not owner-occupied. Of those, 8,631 have owners who control 11 or more rental units. That means the unit limit alone would exempt 60% of all city rental properties.

The state allows municipalities to adjust the units owned and rent-level exemptions. Five municipalities have done so. Kingston, Ithaca, Beacon, Albany, and Poughkeepsie provide exemptions only for landlords with a single rental unit.

If Rochester were to implement the one-unit rule, the share of exempt properties would drop to about 17%.

“Good Cause Eviction Protections are about making sure people aren’t getting pushed out of their homes just because landlords want to squeeze them for more money. But the current legislation leaves tens of thousands of tenants at the mercy of landlords who can exploit these gaps to maximize profits at the expense of our communities,” City-Wide Tenant Union organizer Lisle Coleman said in a statement.

Councilmember Mary Lupien sponsored the city’s original Good Cause bill, which exempted only owner-occupied properties with two units. She said that a primary goal this time around should be eliminating loopholes that might, for example, allow a property owner with multiple limited liability companies, or LLCs, to skirt Good Cause coverage.

Landlords are able to register property ownership under individual LLCs, meaning they can split up their portfolio under different owner names. Effectively, advocates argue, that could allow them to avoid being subject to Good Cause laws by limiting the properties in their name.

“So instead of fixing that problem, we’re trying to hold open this loophole that benefits very few, at the expense of very many,” Lupien said.

The last public input session on Good Cause is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Edgerton Recreation Center. Lupien said there has been little discussion among Council on altering the bill

“We don’t really talk to each other,” she said.

But when City Council President Miguel Meléndez and his colleagues introduced the measure in June, he said cast the legislation as a chance to have a thoughtful exchange of ideas.

“Remember, this is up for consideration, nothing is passed,” Meléndez said. “This is a chance for us to be a deliberative body.”

Many landlords across Rochester are staunchly opposed to Good Cause protections.

The Rochester Housing Coalition, an association of landlords and property managers, has argued Good Cause will only exacerbate a housing crisis by limiting the development of new units. Matt Drouin is president of the coalition, and a landlord who owns more than 100 properties in the Rochester area. He claims bills like Good Cause and the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 have led to disinvestment by good landlords. That law set restrictions on rent increases at 7.5%.

Rochester did not qualify for those protections, after failing to show a less than 5% vacancy rate on certain units.

“We are in a housing crisis, there’s just not enough naturally occurring affordable housing,” Drouin said. “The HSTPA was kind of the tipping point that really changed the tenability of responsible housing owners being able to run their business in a way that’s sustainable.

“Not all, but you’ve seen a lot of the responsible, best in breed housing providers have exited the market,” he continued. “(Then) you get someone in California who reads an article about how cheap housing is in Rochester, sees a house for $40,000, and thinks, ‘What could possibly go wrong?’”

City property records show about 16% of all residential property owners list a residence outside of the city. About 5% live outside the state.

Drouin said the way to improve the market and increase stock is by getting vacant properties rehabilitated and back in service. About 2% of all properties in the city are currently vacant.

For Susseth the hope now is that the court system will fix what the government, so far, has not – or at least buy her more time. It’s a taxing process, rife with fear of what will come next. Talking about it brings her to tears.

“I’m a good tenant, I’ve always been a good tenant, I never cause any issues and have always looked out for your property,” she said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to me and my kids.”