Gov. Kathy Hochul is getting on board with key parts of the “Good Cause Eviction” bill being pushed by lefty lawmakers — moving forward a massive housing deal being negotiated as part of the already-late state budget.
Sources on Monday said Hochul and legislators were “close” to reaching an agreement on housing, an issue that has been a major sticking point in the ongoing talks over the must-pass spending plan, which was due April 1.
State Sen. Julia Salazar (D-Brooklyn), who has championed the bill, told The Post she felt “comfortable” with where negotiations stood compared to last year, where progress was almost nonexistent on the topic.
Her proposal includes effectively capping rent increases and instituting tenant protections that critics say would make it near-impossible to evict someone unless they break their lease.
“I think it’s urgent, especially now that the budget is late that we get it done,” the progressive pol said.
The “Good Cause” bill would cap rent increases at 3% per year, but the deal currently on the table would limit it to 10%, or 5% plus the latest Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation, sources said. This would mirror a law already on the books in California.
Landlords would not technically be barred from raising rents above those levels, but they could face being dragged to court if they did.
“I think that lower would be better,” Salazar said of the 5% plus CPI proposal. “But I think that there is reasonable support because of the California law.”
Hochul has pushed for some other modest changes, including limiting the law to apply only to units that are below a certain rent threshold and a 15-year exemption for new construction.
Just how high rent would have to be to exempt a unit from the law remains one of the more significant sticking points.
“A high rent exemption is fine as long as it is a truly high rent,” Salazar said.
Also involved in broader discussions are whether to give municipalities the option to opt-out of the law entirely.
Tenant protections are just one component of the wickedly complex housing talks that also include proposed tax credits and other incentives to spur more affordable housing and convert office space into homes and making changes to a decades-old law that limits the height of buildings based on the size of their lots.
Lawmakers and Hochul alike say that they’re far more optimistic about the prospects of a deal on housing at this point than they were last year when talks on the issue floundered and eventually were largely tossed from the budget.
“Areas that I would say were dead on arrival last year are coming back to life,” Hochul told reporters in an impromptu visit to the capitol press quarters last week. “I call them my Lazarus bills. They’re back.”
“Keep your eyes open and you might see a housing deal eclipse by this weekend,” one lawmaker quipped to The Post.
