Statement From Housing Justice For All
Published below is the full press release from Housing Justice For All, describing how new legislation might enable Beacon to pass rent regulation to save families and businesses from being evicted or bullied into new higher rents:
Right now, outdated state law makes it expensive and difficult for communities to adopt rent stabilization – and when they try, landlords sue to overturn the protection. Cities like Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Albany, Newburgh, and Nyack have all been blocked from protecting their tenants. The REST Act would clear away legal barriers and shield cities from frivolous landlord lawsuits.
The bill would also expand protections by bringing buildings built in the last 15 years into rent stabilization and giving localities control over which building sizes are covered.
During the hearing, while tenants testified to struggling to afford the rent, landlord representative Rich Lanzarone, Executive Director of Housing Providers of New York State, testified that his lobby group has spent $150,000 suing municipalities to stop rent stabilization.
Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha also pressed Lanzarone on his previous statements, asking him why he had testified at a 2022 rent stabilization hearing that tenant struggles “made [him] want to puke.”
Local elected officials such as Syracuse City Auditor Alexander Marion and the Mayor of Hudson, NY, Kamal Johnson also spoke about how the REST Act would benefit local governments. Legal services providers and policy experts such as Marcie Kobak, Director of Litigation at Legal Services of the Hudson Valley; Jason May, Hudson Valley Justice Center Executive Director; and Oksana Mironova, Senior Policy Analyst at the Community Service Society.
Housing affordability has become a defining issue for voters – statewide polling shows an overwhelming majority of voters, 68%, would be more likely to support a candidate who backs rent stabilization. Pro-tenant candidates won decisively in the NYC and Syracuse mayoral primaries.
“The testimony we heard at today's Housing Committee hearing from local governments, community organizations and stakeholders from around the state painted a clear picture of the affordable housing emergency facing our communities,” said Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal (D/WF - Manhattan), Chair of the Assembly Committee on Housing. “With passage of the HSTPA in 2019, the Legislature sought to empower localities to opt in to rent stabilization to help manage their local housing emergency. Local governments should not be forced to empty their municipal coffers just to demonstrate the housing emergency they are seeing each day. As we prepare for the next legislative session, I am eager to continue these conversations and examine legislative solutions, like the REST Act, that will ease the burden on local governments and keep people in their communities.”
"Despite an obvious ongoing housing emergency, including in my district in the Hudson Valley, our localities have not been able to adequately protect residents with the rent stabilization laws we expanded in 2019,” said Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha, lead Assembly sponsor of the REST Act. “This was a timely hearing we needed desperately. It was compelling to hear directly from local electeds as well as tenants, lawyers, and advocates on why New York needs a tool to protect all of its tenants from price-gouging, not just a few. I am hopeful that the state will do the right thing and pass our bill, the REST Act, to ensure local electeds are given the power they need to pass an effective rent stabilization local law that will protect their constituents."
“Tenants are half the state and the majority in every major city – and we are demanding rent stabilization across the state. Right now, tenants are working multiple jobs, struggling to afford necessities like medicine, groceries, and child care while our landlords get richer and richer. The REST Act would make rents affordable and give us the housing stability we deserve. Elected officials need to choose: stand with tenants or keep protecting landlord profits,” said Cea Weaver, Housing Justice for All director.
"Hudson has one of the toughest housing markets in the region, and too many people are being priced out of the place they call home. The REST Act helps address that by opening doors for returning citizens and those struggling to find affordable housing. When we make housing more accessible, we make Hudson stronger and fairer for everyone,” said Hudson Mayor Kamal Johnson.
“Our research shows that skyrocketing rents are causing housing instability, evictions, and homelessness for tenants across the state. The Community Service Society of New York (CSS) strongly supports Senator Kavanagh’s and Assemblymember Shrestha’s Rent Emergency Stabilization (REST) Act (S4659A/A4877A) as a rapid, low-cost method for expanding housing security and affordability” said David R. Jones, President and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York.
"Municipalities are looking for ways to address the affordability crisis for their constituencies, the majority of which are tenants. Annually, we are seeing rents in the Capital Region increase by approximately 10%, while Average Median Income actually decreased between 2024-2025," said Canyon Ryan, Executive Director of United Tenants of Albany. "Rent stabilization is one major tool to address this crisis, and it has been systematically denied to municipalities via landlord led lawfare and arcane study requirements that fail to incorporate any tenant perspectives in the process."
"There is a housing crisis across New York State. Half of New Yorkers are renters, and rising rents are making renter households vulnerable to displacement and eviction. Removing barriers to municipalities enacting rent stabilization laws is a crucial policy tool to address this crisis. We know from the research who is most affected by the housing crisis: families. Children under eighteen face the highest risk of eviction, and experiencing eviction during childhood is associated with profound lifelong impairment of health and educational outcomes,” said Brian Calacci, Open Markets Institute Chief Economist. “Thankfully, there are policy tools to address the crisis. Rent stabilization works: it is effective in protecting tenants and allowing families to stay at their addresses longer. Most importantly, far from the hard rent caps often invoked by critics, modern rent stabilization of the type enabled by the REST Act is a sophisticated tool. It is designed to facilitate new housing construction by exempting newly built units. Moreover, rent stabilization attempts to balance the interests of landlords and tenants, rather than strongly favoring one side over the other. The REST Act would give municipalities a crucial tool to fight the housing crisis. Its time has come."
“Tenants make up half the state, but New York’s rent regulation laws are written as if New York City is the only place where renters live. Upstate tenants also deserve protections that come from rent stabilization to fight back against predatory rent hikes and de facto evictions. But, under current state laws, it is all but impossible for Upstate towns and cities to provide that,” said Xaver Kandler, Political Director at For the Many and Co-Chair of the Housing Justice for All Coalition. “The REST Act is a commonsense solution that would remove arbitrary, outdated barriers to rent stabilization, giving local governments meaningful tools to address a burgeoning housing crisis and protect more tenants. As rents continue to skyrocket across the Hudson Valley, outpacing wages and causing sharp increases in homelessness, the REST Act would untie the hands of municipalities from Newburgh to Hudson and allow our members to rest easier knowing that they aren't one missed paycheck away from losing their homes.
“We are all aware that our community is facing a housing affordability crisis. While there are many ways to measure the severity of this issue, current law relies on just one indicator—the vacancy rate—to determine whether a housing emergency exists,” said Albany Common Councilmember and small landlord Owusu Anane. “This legislation would modernize that approach by allowing additional factors and data points to be considered. It gives cities like Albany greater flexibility to declare a housing emergency when conditions warrant it—and, more importantly, equips us with the tools we need to respond more effectively to the crisis at hand.”
“We did everything right in Poughkeepsie — and still got sued for trying to keep people in their homes,” said Evan Menist, Poughkeepsie City Common Councilmember. “The REST Act cuts through the red tape so local governments can finally make rent affordable and stop families from being priced out. Everyone deserves a stable home and a fair shot at building the life they dream of.”
“Rent stabilization has provided essential safeguards for tenants in Kingston against soaring rents and potential displacement. However, the current Emergency Tenant Protection Act (ETPA) excludes 80% of renters in our city. It's vital that we implement a more inclusive form of rent stabilization that shields a larger number of tenants and isn't reliant on costly and often flawed vacancy studies that landlords frequently challenge,” said Michele Hirsch, Kingston Common Council. “The REST Act presents a valuable chance to broaden these protections for tenants across the state and ensure they remain intact.”
“As someone who has spent years organizing tenants in the Hudson Valley, I’ve seen firsthand how tenants are getting displaced by skyrocketing rents. Kingston has been a lone bright spot: rent stabilized tenants are staying put because the municipality was able to opt into ETPA. Sadly, only about 20% of the city’s renters are protected by rent stabilization, even though tenants make up more than half of Kingston,” said Jenna Goldstein, Ulster County Community Organizer at For the Many. “The REST Act would finally make rent stabilization a tool strong enough to combat the crisis we’re facing, by making it simpler for municipalities to opt in and cover more households. Until we pass this law and expand rent stabilization to Upstate New York and Long Island, rents will rise and people will continue to lose their homes.”
“Tenants in the Hudson Valley are desperate for rent stabilization, which would allow us to live our lives without the constant fear of disruption and displacement that defines our day-to-day,” said June Nemon, a tenant organizer with the Hudson Valley Tenants Union. “Many upstate communities have tried to stabilize rents, but the NYC real estate lobby has stopped at nothing to prevent us from living lives of dignity. The REST Act would allow cities and towns throughout New York to provide basic protections for their residents without being dragged into endless, costly lawsuits that give landlords plenty of time to exact revenge against their tenants for the crime of wanting a basic sense of stability.”
"If we expand rent stabilization, I could finally afford the stability I’ve been working so hard for, not just for myself, but for my son. I could give him a room of his own. I could afford to take him out more than once a month. I could stop living paycheck to paycheck and start planning for our future,” said Bebhinn Francis, United Tenants of Albany Tenant Organizer. “That’s what rent stabilization means to me, a stable home, a real chance to build the life I dream of."
“About half of Buffalo tenants spend most of their income on rent and these apartments are often unsafe or uninhabitable. With nearly 30% of residents living in poverty, our communities can’t afford to wait any longer,” said Janayia Capers, Organizer for Housing Justice at PUSH Buffalo. “Rent stabilization is a real and necessary solution to bring stability and affordability to Buffalonians. Elected officials must make a choice: stand with tenants or continue to protect landlords that profit off of our communities.”
"When the state legislature passed the Housing Stability and Tenant Act (HSPTA) of 2019 their intention was to expand rent stabilization to Upstate New York and so all New Yorkers could have a chance at a livable future. By passing the REST Act, that intention will become a reality and the whole state can finally have a chance at the housing stability we all deserve,” said Ryan Acuff, City-Wide Tenant Union of Rochester, NY.
