A year ago, New York passed a law that, on the one hand, made it illegal for landlords to jack up rent over a certain amount or to end a tenant's lease without a good reason. But on the other hand, the law was so packed with exemptions for landlords that it could take a private investigator to work out if you're actually covered.
Hell Gate spent the last week speaking with housing attorneys, renters, and advocates ahead of the Good Cause Eviction law's first birthday to see if it's had an impact for the estimated 800,000 additional renters it was meant to protect, despite its flaws.
We found the law is being used with increasing frequency in the city's housing courts to defend tenants from unfair eviction. But it's still far too hard for New York renters to work out if they're even covered by Good Cause Eviction, mostly because of the law's exemption for "small landlords" who own 10 units or less.
Taking matters into their own hands, nonprofits Housing Justice for All, a tenant advocacy group and JustFix, tech developers for renters' rights, today launched an online tool to help with this issue, coinciding with the GCE's anniversary.
New York City tenants can plug their address into the tool, which uses publicly-available data to tell you if it's likely you're covered by GCE, and whether your rent increase is legal (top right corner on the homepage). I don't know who needs to hear this, but you should probably go put in your address right now! Know your rights before the shit hits the fan with your landlord.
While the tool is a big help, it's annoying that we even need it, said Cea Weaver, director of Housing Justice for All.
"I have to be honest, my first reaction was, 'I'm so fucking mad about all these goddamn exemptions,' I was mad last year, and I'm still mad," she said.
"The tool is excellent. I'm so happy they built it. But the state should be the one who's making it easy for you to understand it, right? It sucks that we're relying on this really excellent and wonderful nonprofit to do it. And also, you know, all those folks should not be kicked out of their homes," she said.