Today at 4:00 p.m., Mayor Kamal Johnson holds a public hearing on three proposed laws. One of them is the "good cause" eviction law. Last night, at the Common Council Legal Committee meeting, Alderman Rebecca Wolff (First Ward) said she wanted to amend the law, which the Council had voted to enact at its September meeting. Among the changes requested by Wolff were deleting the words "significant market changes relevant to the subject unit" in paragraph 1 under "Grounds for removal of tenants" and deleting this paragraph, paragraph 9, altogether:
The owner-landlord has in good faith entered into a contract for the sale of the housing accommodation and such contract requires that the housing accommodation be transferred free and clear of any and all residential tenancy obligations as a condition of such sale where the owner-landlord has no shared financial or other interest with the potential buyer than the sale of the housing accommodation in question and submitted sufficient proof to the court thereof.
Wolff said of the amendments she was proposing, "This is how [the law] has been passed in other cities." When asked where it had been passed other than in Albany and Hudson, Wolff named a number of cities, among them Kingston, Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, and Beacon. Council president Tom DePietro said his information was that Beacon was still considering it.
Jeff Baker, counsel to the Council, told Wolff that the mayor had already scheduled a public hearing on the law but suggested the mayor could veto it "to give time to make corrections." It will be interesting to see what the mayor does. Click here to access the hearing on Zoom.
COPYRIGHT 2021 CAROLE OSTERINK
Carole:
ReplyDeleteI read the text of the draft law that you linked to in your previous post. It did not seem to be the same as the language approved. At that meeting, the market rate language had been removed.
I went to the City website to find the language that is to be discussed today but could not locate it. Hopefully it will be shared at the 4.00 pm meeting.
Margaret Morris
Hard to tell if Comrade Wolff reports to the Soviet or the local subsidized housing mafia, but her ideas are nearly certain to ensure that a) no new rental housing will ever be built or invested in in Hudson, b) except by those who seek to storm the public treasury (as meager as it is) to line their own pockets by building subsidized housing that doesn't contribute to the community. I'd love to really know which side she is playing for (both?) and if she's as wholly-ignorant of economics and history as the policies she espouses indicate or merely playing a part.
ReplyDeleteWho knows. But it’s obvious that her opposition to real estate investment is an obsession. Just a couple of days ago, she used threatening language towards a local real estate agent:
Deletehttps://www.instagram.com/p/CUrDhv-g2-m/?utm_medium=copy_link
It’s disheartening to know she still represents and makes policy for Hudson for the rest of the year.
Seems a bit disconcerting that these alder-people who are on their way out the door and will be replaced in a few weeks are trying to push through and make changes to laws that may effect the economy of the city for some time to come. It would make sense to table all this legislation until after the election when we will have new representatives who will (at least) be held accountable for the next couple of years.
ReplyDelete