ALBANY, N.Y. — Prior to 2020, Eric Smith was paying $515 to rent his apartment. During the pandemic, it was raised to $615.
"During COVID, we paid rent but it was a struggle. It really hit the pocket because with everything rising, gas, food, being out of work, it definitely hit my pocket really hard," Smith said.
Now Smith says his landlord wants to raise it to $825.
But Democrats in Albany are working on the Good Cause Eviction bill, which would prevent landlords from raising rent more than 3 percent, or 1.5 percent higher than the Consumer Market Index.
It also prevents landlords from evicting a tenant without good cause.
Ayat Nieves, who has been a landlord for the last 15 years, says it's only going to cause a slew of problems for landlords who are still trying to bounce back from COVID and the eviction moratorium that was in place.
"Good Cause Eviction is a lease for life. It makes it impossible to remove a tenant or even a problem tenant and there's an already backlogged court. It makes it impossible to do needed repairs, and it's just overall cumbersome and difficult," Nieves said.
Nieves says he's in favor of programs that help people pay their rent, and there are laws in place to help tenants, such as the housing stability and tenant protection act of 2019.
It made changes to every step of the leasing process.
"(The bill is) not protecting good people. It's protecting bad people," Nieves said.
But the new proposal even has Democratic Assemblywoman Monica Wallace saying it will do more harm than good.
She sent this statement to 2 On Your Side:
"Though well-intentioned, Good Cause Eviction will do more harm than good. Not only will this legislation fundamentally shift ownership and property rights from the owner to the renter, it will also limit the supply of housing that is available for new tenants, including young people starting careers in new places and growing families that need a larger space. Ultimately, rising rents are an issue of supply not meeting demand, and this legislation will not address that fundamental problem. I urge my colleagues to focus instead on solutions to expand our state's housing stock, which will bring down costs for all tenants as well as home buyers."
While they don't agree with the bill, renters like Smith say they need help getting landlords to raise rent at a reasonable rate.
"Wages aren't going up but everything else is," Smith said. "There are good tenants out there."