Res 0506-2023

Whereas, On May 16, 2022, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), along with the U.S. Census Bureau, released their 2021 New York City Housing Vacancy Survey (HVS), which reported that two out of every three households rented their home in New York City (NYC or the City) in 2021; and Whereas, The NYC Rent Guidelines Board released their 2022 Income and Affordability Study which estimated that 51.7 percent of renters in NYC are rent burdened, meaning they pay at least 30 percent of their income towards rent, a 1.6 percent increase from their study's findings a year prior; and Whereas, The same study also found that 28.3 percent of renting households are considered to be severely rent burdened because they are spending 50 percent or more of their income towards rent, a 2.1 percent increase from the year prior; and Whereas, Tenants who are rent burdened or severely rent burdened could quickly become homeless due to unexpected circumstances like illness, personal crises, or other sudden financial setbacks, especially when considering a March 2022 report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which revealed that 39 percent of consumers have less than a month of income saved for emergencies, while 24 percent have no savings set aside for emergencies; and Whereas, According to the Right to Counsel NYC Coalition, a tenant advocacy group, there has been a rapid rise in active eviction cases since the expiration of COVID-inspired statewide eviction protections on January 15, 2022, with 266,426 active eviction cases in New York State as of the week of October 23, 2022, a distinct increase from the 190,034 cases active during the week of January 2, 2022; and Whereas, On February 28, 2022, tenant advocacy and policy organizations Housing Justice for All, the Community Service Society, New York University's Urban Democracy Lab, and the Pratt Center for Community Development released a joint report detailing how minority households, specifically black households, were three times as likely to face eviction as white households across the state, while black tenants in NYC were twice as likely as white tenants to have zero dollars in savings; and Whereas, Increased numbers of evictions from landlords threaten to impact the most vulnerable New Yorkers and could put enormous pressure on the City's homeless services; and Whereas, According to the Coalition for the Homeless, a homeless advocacy group, in the past few years homelessness in NYC has reached the highest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930s, with The Bowery Mission, a homeless services organization, reporting that NYC's homeless population has surged to 80,000 people, and the website for the NYC Department of Social Services and Homeless Services stating that 55,338 people, including more than 18,000 children, slept in city shelters on September 11, 2022; and Whereas, The Coalition for the Homeless recently released a report titled "State of the Homeless 2022: New York at a Crossroads", in which it cited eviction as a primary reason for individuals becoming unhoused, highlighting the drop in homelessness rates while the statewide eviction moratoriums were in effect; and Whereas, The same report also found that in December 2021, an average number of 18,704 individuals slept each night in NYC's shelter system for single adults, an increase of 91 percent in 10 years; and Whereas, A January 2022 analysis from the Pratt Center and the Community Service Society of New York found that legislation preventing evictions without good cause (Good Cause Eviction legislation) could protect 1.6 million households and nearly 50 percent of tenants statewide, while the New York Civil Liberties Union cited Good Cause Eviction legislation as an important measure in contributing to housing stability, an important factor in health, education, employment, and childhood well-being; and Whereas, New York City is facing an affordability crisis with its housing market, experiencing record highs in average rent over the past summer, including an average rent of $5,113 in Manhattan, $3,883 in Brooklyn, and $3,426 in Northwest Queens according to a July 2022 report by real estate company Douglas Elliman; and Whereas, Streeteasy, an online real estate company specializing in NYC real estate, also released a report on October 6, 2022 that stated rent growth outpaced wage growth by 23% in NYC in August 2022, the widest gap since the 2008 financial crisis; and Whereas, In addition to record high rents and a historically large gap between wages and rents, the NYC HVS also revealed that the City saw its 2021 net rental vacancy rate as 0.86 percent among units with rents of less than $900 and 0.93 percent among units with rents of $900 to $1,499, extremely low rates that pose problems for New Yorkers looking for affordable housing; and Whereas, The housing affordability crisis and homelessness crisis are immediate and pressing problems both in the City and across the State of New York; and Whereas, A.5573, sponsored by Assembly Member Pamela Hunter in the New York State Assembly and companion bill S.3082, sponsored by State Senator Julia Salazar in the New York State Senate, would prohibit landlords from taking any action to evict, to fail to renew a lease or to remove a tenant from a housing accommodation unless it was done for a good cause; and Whereas, This legislation would help ameliorate the housing crises by protecting millions of renter households in New York State from evictions without good cause, thus allowing more tenants to stay housed; now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls upon the New York State Legislature to pass, and the Governor to sign, A.5573/S.3082, in relation to prohibiting eviction without good cause. CCK LS # 9916, 10911 10/31/2022