| Date: | March 5, 2020 |
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by Al Vaughters | March 5, 2020
Several community service groups, tenant activists, and housing attorneys gathered at the Marine Trust Building this week to talk about a new report on local evictions, “Evicted in Buffalo: the High Cost of Involuntary Mobility.”
Housing activists have created a new term for what is leading to homelessness, “involuntary mobility.” That is when tenants and their families are forced to keep moving due to unaffordable rent, or unhealthy living conditions.
Andrea Ó Súilleabháin, Executive Director for the Partnership for the Public Good (PPG) told the gathering, these factors are keeping renters, especially women, on the move.
“The ability of people to keep and find jobs and participate in job training programs, of course all of that is dependent on having a clean healthy safe place to live.”
Sam Magavern, lead author of the report, pointed out the housing problem is not just in Buffalo, it is across the state, and evictions force tenants into even worse housing.
“Why? Because you are moving suddenly, your choices are not good. You are financially very strapped. Not surprisingly you end up in worse housing and worse neighborhoods than you left.”
Tenants and landlords groups say, the conditions are not improving, even though state lawmakers adopted a new set of protections last year, the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 that was touted as a “gamechanger” for tenants rights.
Attorney Adam Bojak, who represents tenants in eviction cases said, the new measure seemed to be geared more for renters in New York City’s 5 boroughs than for Upstate tenants.
“But it is not addressing root causes of eviction. It is not putting more money into people’s bank accounts to ensure they can pay the rent ahead of time.”
Loran Bommer an attorney who represents landlords in Buffalo Housing Court and a landlord himself, said many property owners in Buffalo are feeling all the work of owning and managing rentals is not worth it anymore.
“You either want to be a landlord or you don’t. There is no in between, there is no ‘oh just when I get the rent. I enjoy being a landlord and the rest of the month I hate it.’ You either want to be a landlord and that is your business, or you need to get out.”
Tenant groups across New York are calling for state lawmakers to pass a Home Stability Support Bill, which would help low and moderate income families bridge the gap between their monthly rent and what they can afford.
Read the full article on the WIVB website here.
For the full report, Evicted in Buffalo: the High Costs of Involuntary Mobility, click here.