Nov 1
2022
Activists seek renter protections
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Responding to a spike in rents, Buffalo housing activists Tuesday called on City Hall to take steps to provide more affordable housing and protect tenants from bad landlords.
Citing a 16 percent increase in rents since 2020, housing advocates and tenants hand-delivered documents to Common Council members asking for action on four fronts:
- Limiting evictions for just cause, such as nonpayment of rent or lease violations.
- Requiring landlords to make repairs in a timely fashion.
- Mandating targeted rent controls to ensure a supply of affordable rental housing.
- Establishing a $1 million revolving loan program to help low-income renters and homeowners.
PUSH Buffalo organized a meeting of tenants last month, where those four items were deemed the most urgent of 10 listed in the Buffalo Tenant’s Bill of Rights, a proposal that aims to get more renters’ rights signed into local law.
The creators of the bill have pushed city officials to address these and other issues since 2018. The organizers of Tuesday’s event said post-pandemic rent increases combined with poor quality rentals are feeding the city’s housing crisis.
“These landlords see how much money they can get without improving the property,” said tenant advocate Sonya Rice.
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Renters have been pushing back against what they have called unfair housing practices throughout the pandemic, according to the activists.
Teresa Watson, housing justice organizer at PUSH Buffalo, said some tenants who did not make rent payments during the pandemic’s eviction moratorium have since asserted their right to withhold rent due to negligent landlords. While that has led to some evictions, she said it helped send a message that renters are finding ways to protect themselves.
PUSH Buffalo’s Teresa Watson speaks at a Nov. 1 tenants’ rights rally at Buffalo City Hall. Photo by I’Jaz Jaciel.
“There are a lot of folks across the city who are withholding because of repairs that have not been done,” Watson said. “Particularly, if your rent goes up and the repair that you’ve been asking for for over a year isn’t made, it’s a great time … to withhold your rent.”
Niagara District Councilman David Rivera met the group shortly after they delivered an agenda to his office. He agreed with the organizers’ concerns, but said the process to implement changes relies on cooperation between the city, the county and the state.
“I think we all have to protect tenants’ rights and landlords’ rights as well, so we all agree on that,” Rivera said. “It’s just making sure what we can do is practical and that we can legislate on the city’s side.”
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Rivera suggested more affordable housing throughout the city would check several items off the activists’ agenda.
“Our housing program says that we should have affordable housing in affluent neighborhoods. If not, we’re going to segment the city,” he said.
But more affordable housing isn’t enough without new protections for renters, according to the activists.
“We need our elected officials for the city to step up and protect their people, the people of Buffalo, and what we need is policy change,” Watson said.
The activists want the Common Council to enact laws and adopt policies in support of their agenda now, before they turn to lobbying state lawmakers next year.
“I’m hoping that they will read [the document] and begin to enact whatever they can as soon as possible, because January is coming and we have to go to Albany, and we want to be able to go to Albany with some victories in hand,” Rice said.
