“Today’s decision is further evidence that the vacancy study process throws up arbitrary barriers to sensible policy choices and is a boon to litigious landlords.”
NEW YORK – The trial court in Dutchess County has overturned the Emergency Tenant Protection Act declaration in the City of Poughkeepsie. Following a vacancy study last fall, the city declared a housing emergency and adopted rent stabilization in June 2024. This decision puts the stability of hundreds of families at risk and is the result of outdated and overly-complicated state law.
The statement below can be attributed to Housing Justice for All Coalition Director Cea Weaver:
“Poughkeepsie tenants and elected officials have made their need for rent stabilization absolutely clear. Today’s decision is further evidence that the vacancy study process throws up arbitrary barriers to sensible policy choices and is a boon to litigious landlords. The vacancy study requirement simply doesn’t reflect the reality of the housing emergency or the need for stabilization of rising rental prices.
“It’s long past time to modernize the 50 year-old Emergency Tenant Protection Act for upstate New York by eliminating the obstacle of a costly and flawed study, and allowing municipalities to determine what buildings will be stabilized in their jurisdiction.”
Background:
The Emergency Tenant Protection Act (ETPA) of 1974 is state law that governs rent stabilization. ETPA is enabling legislation that allows local governments facing a “housing emergency” – defined as a vacancy rate of less than 5% – to prevent price-gouging and displacement by controlling rent increases on buildings with 6 or more apartments. Between 1974 and 2019, ETPA was only applicable in New York City and its surrounding counties; in 2019 the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act amended the ETPA to allow municipalities outside of NYC and the surrounding counties to “opt-in” rent stabilization if the localities so chose.
Under the law, municipalities must determine via a study that the vacancy rate of buildings eligible for stabilization is less than 5%. These studies have proven to be a costly barrier to municipalities seeking to stabilize out-of-control rental markets, and have been a boon to litigious landlords opposing rent stabilization. The Hudson Valley Property Owners Association sued the cities of Kingston, Newburgh, and Poughkeepsie over the methodology of their vacancy studies, and filed a federal lawsuit against a 2023 law to standardize the study methodology.
Housing Justice for All proposes modernizing the ETPA law to allow municipalities to declare an emergency and stabilize rents based on public hearings as well as publicly available data such as the overall housing supply, rent-to-income ratios, local or regional homelessness rate. This will both eliminate the need for a time-intensive, costly, and contentious vacancy study and will give local governments more flexible jurisdiction over their housing policy – allowing them to apply ETPA more appropriately.