By Councilman Shane Osinloye 

In October 2025, I will have the privilege of voting for one of the most tenant focused items of legislation in New Rochelle history. Our mission is to protect our neighbors, improve their residential experiences, and alleviate their understandable fears of displacement brought on by a solid decade of consistent development. I am impatient and excited to vote “YES” for Good Cause Eviction legislation, but we need public support on Wednesday October 15^th to bring this tenant protection into reality!

As a lifelong New Rochellean, I’m proud to say that Good Cause Eviction legislation is a major step towards addressing decades of our tenant neighbors feeling like they have no allies in City Hall and nobody to turn to when their needs go ignored. Our city’s leadership is also compiling resources to initiate an occupied-unit improvement program to assist small landlords in making repairs for their existing tenants.

In the 2025 state budget, Albany created a “Good Cause” framework to protect renters from violent rent hikes and family destroying evictions. Albany, Ithaca, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, New Paltz, Beacon, Newburgh, and Hudson have already adopted Good Cause Eviction legislation (GCE). These commitments deliver on a simple premise: people who pay their rent and follow their lease should not be evicted from their homes without a serious reason. The market dispassionately utilizes the lingo “unit.” However, an apartment is not just inventory on a page in someone’s investment portfolio, it is a home dwelling where our neighbors live out their lives, grow their families, and contribute their diverse experiences to our community.

From the time I began my run for City Council up to the present, I have heard consistent horror stories. A parent with a New Rochelle High School student whose hasty and wrongful eviction disrupted regents exams. A County worker and parent of a Trinity elementary school student whose lease was simply not renewed and had no other affordable option to turn to. A family forced to move away from a rat infestation so severe, one of their children started experiencing respiratory issues. A parent with black mold, their shower pipes in disrepair, and an unresponsive landlord. Recalling these horror stories makes my heart hurt and brings tears to my eyes.

I remember how powerless I felt in the moments of hearing about these incidents which were often heard too late with scenarios beyond recovery. I could not imagine how those parents felt. At some point I realized, this is just what I am hearing alone. I came to find my five peers on council and our mayor were also hearing similar disaster stories. I also realized I was hearing from our neighbors who felt empowered, trusting and/or willing enough to share. This means many more stories, and therefore more families, go off into oblivion with their ruin going completely unheard. 

New Rochelle, let’s fix this!

What Good Cause Actually Does

Good Cause Eviction (GCE) requires a landlord to state a recognized, lawful reason for ending a tenancy. These include but are not limited to nonpayment, serious lease violations, nuisance, illegal use, or a bona fide owner or family move-in, all with reasonable notice. The purpose of this is to prevent people from losing their homes over a robber baron or soulless corporation deciding to push them out to price gouge the rest of the market.

GCE also limits the amount rent can increase at lease renewal to a reasonable rate. Rent hikes above a presumptive threshold (e.g., 10% or 5% + CPI) are subject to challenge, a guardrail to deter price-gouging without micromanaging ordinary rent setting. Well over 20,000 New Rochelle residents are already rent burdened by definition, “paying over 30% of their take home income on rent.” You or your neighbors might disagree to say that number “feels” much higher, and I’m with you. 

What’s important to remember is that GCE covers our neighbors who are completely exposed. Many residents are not living with any housing assistance through programs that come with their own tenant protections. GCE brings order to the Wild West, the system of trusting that every landlord on earth wants to do the right thing and choose New Rochelle residents and families over profit. Sadly, this is not the case. Many of us know this painfully well from the families and friends we’ve lost to other geographies throughout our nation. A brain drain does not make “New Ro Strong.”

Stable Homes, Stronger Cities

In every city where tenants have protections and access to counsel, evictions decline, and housing stability rises. In 2024, the New York City Comptroller reported that 89% of tenants with full legal representation remained stably housed. Broader trends show evictions falling dramatically as NYC invested in tenant defense pre-dating the pandemic. 

As exciting as the prospect of growth feels, seeing the new buildings on the New Rochelle skyline elicits reasonably fearful questions. “Is my landlord going to raise my rent to match new luxury housing prices?” “Am I going to get kicked out for complaining about the repairs I need? “Do the people at city hall even care about me and my family?” Passing GCE is telling our constituent-neighbors that we care and putting our care into writing “with teeth.”

Addressing the Standard Objections

Many of our neighbors are property owning landlords as well. The powers that be are hard at work in their ears, vilifying any type of tenant protections. Our landlord neighbors deserve to know the truth about GCE, along with how it benefits their livelihoods as well through clarity and stability. The goal is not to harm our landlord neighbors. The goal is to show we can maintain healthy tenant, landlord, city relationships through good policy.

“This is rent control by another name.”

Good Cause does not freeze base rents. Many statutes permit increases above the CPI-plus threshold when owners document costs (taxes, maintenance, capital improvements). 

“It will end development!”

GCE exempts new construction, leaves new developers free to set initial rents, and applies to existing occupied units where displacement pressures are highest. New York’s approach focuses on price-gouging prevention and a fair process, not on telling builders what to charge. Many new constructions require federal, state and county investment  regardless, which includes similar restrictions in adherence with their partnerships. 

“It will trap small landlords and create bureaucracy.”

Modern statutes incorporate owner-occupant carve-outs and hardship pathways so truly small or elderly landlords aren’t crushed by edge cases while GCE prevents bad faith claims. 

“Your local law will get struck down.”

Albany’s pre-2024 ordinance was the only one invalidated due to state preemption grounds, not for being unsound or unconstitutional. New York State has now expressly authorized Good Cause and created an opt-in structure. Cities like ours that proceed under the New York State opt-in avoid the earlier legal issues.

What Good Cause Looks Like

Under New York State, the following are the only “good causes” to initiate an eviction:

1. Nonpayment of “reasonable” rent
2. Violation of a substantial lease obligation
3. Nuisance/ substantial damage/ creating safety issues
4. Illegal occupancy that causes a violation of law 
5. Illegal use of a unit to commit crime
6. Unreasonable refusal of lawful access
7. Owners or relatives move-in as primary residence
8. Impending demolition of the entire premises
9. Withdrawing premises from the rental market
10. Refusal of tenants to accept “reasonable” renewal terms 

Having such clear parameters for eviction alleviates the fear in good tenants trying to keep their homes and good landlords who would only initiate an eviction for a dire reason. It creates stability for all parties to live with assurances. Protecting the homes of good tenant neighbors and the livelihoods of good landlords is the endgame.

Conclusion

Good Cause is the type of legislation I dreamed of when I was called to run for office. Every parent that avoids displacement means at least one child can finish their schooling. Every worker that retains their housing is one more talented taxpayer who can provide their skills in the city they call home, and avoid a lengthy, expensive commute. Our elderly neighbors on fixed incomes will be able to pay for full, healthy meals instead of sacrificing their health for their shelter. GCE will protect thousands of New Rochelleans worrying about massive rent increases or having to uproot their entire lives. 

On Wednesday, October 15, please attend the public hearing at New Rochelle City Hall. Please voice your support for our City Council passing Good Cause Eviction to protect market rate renters who have never experienced any tenant protections before! Please help us stop our neighbors’ horror stories of being pushed out, not having dire repairs made and being afraid to advocate for themselves. GCE legislation moves us one step closer to preserving our neighborhoods and keeping our spirit of “One New Rochelle” alive.