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By Hadassa Kalatizadeh
Even in small villages miles away from New York City, rents are become unaffordable for many residents. As per a recent article in the NY Times, it is becoming increasingly apparent that urban areas outside NYC are grappling with an intensifying housing crisis. Even areas long lauded as more affordable, now have limited housing stock. Reasons cited for the shortage include an influx of new residents due to a rush of residents leaving the cities during the Covid-19 pandemic, an increased number of houses purchased as second homes and homes being listed as short-term vacation rentals.
In some parts of the Hudson Valley, for instance, fair market rents (calculated annually by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development) have soared by up to 45 percent since 2019, as per a report published last year by nonprofit group, Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress. Clearly, wages in many of these regions have not increased in line with the rent increases.
In fact, in some of the regions, lower-income workers have even seen their wages decline, per the report. The higher rental prices are also a function of the rising costs of owning a home, which leaves more people needing to rent rather than own, explained Adam Bosch, the group’s president and chief executive. That has pushed rents “up and up and up,” he said.
Hudson Valley “has seen some of the steepest increases in housing costs anywhere in the state over the past several years,” said Jonathan Bix, the executive director of For the Many, a nonprofit group that has led campaigns calling for state and local housing reform in the state. “People are paying totally unsustainable amounts of their income on housing,” he added. Per the NY Times, some of these communities have been propelled to take matters into their own hands. In Orange and Rockland County, villages like Newburgh, Nyack, and Kingston have declared a “housing emergency” and opted into rent stabilization for many older buildings.
The municipalities’ action temporarily froze rent prices for over 700 households. Some areas north of Hudson Valley, including Albany, Newburgh and Poughkeepsie also passed “good cause eviction” laws, protecting tenants from drastic rent increases and giving them the right to renew leases. Other cities and towns, including Saugerties, New Paltz and Woodstock, have set strict regulations on short-term rentals, the Times reported. “We’ve been forced to get creative,” said Mike Neppl, a spokesman for the city of Newburgh. “In the absence of federal policy and in the absence of state policy, local leadership really matters.”
This is not so easy to do though. In Newburgh, Kingston and Albany, landlords sued leading the local government’s good cause eviction law to be struck down in court. Mr. Neppl said he expects landlords will also challenge rent control measures, and indeed they did in Kingston.
For her part, Gov. Kathy Hochul has said that the state’s housing crisis was a top priority for 2023. Though ambitious proposals were made to write legislation protecting tenants and adding new housing, state lawmakers ultimately failed to pass any major bills. Per the NY Times, State Senators Robert Rolison and James Skoufis, who both represent the mid-Hudson Valley, said they were optimistic that in 2024 lawmakers would step up to take action. They said they would like to see laws protecting tenants, and rewards for high-density residential development adding new housing across NYS.
