What Will It Take For Other Upstate New York Cities To Adopt Rent Control?
August 18, 2022 by The city of Kingston established precedent in New York by passing rent control and it ignited a wave of similar efforts across upstate New York. Under the New York housing policy, cities across the state are permitted to opt in to rent control, as long as they had a vacancy rate of 5% or lower. Therefore, initial efforts are focused on conducting vacancy surveys to identify an accurate number in a city. The success in Kingston, where a vacancy rate of 1.57% facilitated the implementation of rent control on older buildings, serves as a blueprint for other cities grappling with housing affordability issues. However, cities like Rochester faced anticipated struggles, including landlord resistance, potential data manipulation, and the need for robust survey methodologies. Tenant advocates in Rochester, were pushing for mandatory and thorough vacancy surveys, seeking to counteract skewed data and ensure accurate representation of housing availability. Despite obstacles, activists remain hopeful that Kingston’s example will inspire other municipalities to pursue meaningful housing reforms statewide.