Dear Cheektowaga Town Board,

I write on behalf of the Partnership for the Public Good (PPG), a community-based think tank that partners with residents and organizations to build a more just, sustainable, and culturally vibrant Buffalo-Niagara through research, policy development, and civic engagement. Housing affordability has long been a top concern for our partners, and we've spent years studying eviction and displacement in our region — including a 2020 study on the state of evictions in Buffalo (Evicted in Buffalo). Based on that research, we urge the Town Board to opt in to New York State's Good Cause Eviction law.

Everyone deserves a safe, affordable home. But too many renters in Cheektowaga are already struggling to pay their rent. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 10,000 households in Cheektowaga rent their home — at least one in every four households.[1] Of those, 44% already can’t afford their rent![2] Those households pay more than 30% of their income on housing costs. This means that many families may be forced to skimp on necessities—like food or medicine—to pay the rent. And that’s before a landlord even raises the price!

Consider a simple example: say a landlord rents to a tenant who has always paid on time and taken care of her home. If the landlord notices the neighborhood is changing and decides he could get more money from a new tenant, nothing currently stops him from doubling her rent or simply declining to renew her lease. She and her kids would have no choice but to leave — not because they did anything wrong, but because the law gives landlords no obligation to have a reason to evict.

That lack of any requirement to show cause also opens the door to retaliation. Right now, a landlord can effectively end a tenancy or refuse to renew a lease simply because a tenant asked for basic repairs — mold, a broken furnace, a leaking roof. Tenants who fear losing their home often stay silent about unsafe conditions rather than risk eviction, and everyone in the building and the surrounding neighborhood lives with the consequences. It also means renters can be pushed out with no cause at all, and research shows the burden falls hardest on women, children, and renters of color.

Tenant protections are a racial justice issue. Black households in New York State are significantly more likely than White households to be renters. Two of every three Black households in the state are renters, while two of every three White households in the state are homeowners. Further, Black residents in New York State are 4.6 times more likely than White residents to report feeling pressure to move due to threat of eviction or being told to leave by their landlord. Black residents and other residents of color face the brunt of forced moves in New York State, and passing Good Cause eviction is one of the clearest tools to address it.[3]

Good Cause would make Cheektowaga more stable, affordable, and fair by guaranteeing lease renewals, limiting rent hikes, and stopping unjust evictions for tenants in good standing. If you pay your rent and follow your lease, you get to stay in your home. Landlords keep every legitimate reason to remove a tenant — nonpayment, lease violations, nuisance, damage, and more — but they can no longer evict or decline to renew simply out of retaliation, discrimination, or a wish to cash in on a hot rental market.

Good Cause also allows reasonable rent increases: up to 10% OR the consumer price index plus 5%, whichever is lower. This year, a reasonable increase would’ve been about 8%—enough for landlords to keep pace with rising costs while protecting tenants from a hike that forces them out. It's worth remembering that most of us already have similar protections in some form. A homeowner's bank can't raise their mortgage payment 30% on a whim, and tenants in subsidized housing already have comparable safeguards. Good Cause simply extends that same baseline stability to renters in the private market.

Cheektowaga wouldn't be the first to act. At least twenty municipalities across New York — Albany, Rochester, Kingston, Ithaca, Poughkeepsie, Binghamton, and Troy among them — have already opted in, and New Jersey has had similar protections for over 50 years.[4]

Displacement carries real, well-documented costs. Displaced tenants are 11–22% more likely to lose their jobs, and children who are forced to move face worse school outcomes.[5] In PPG's 2020 study, 56% of tenants facing eviction said they had nowhere to go.[6] Displacement takes a toll on health and housing quality too, and it isn't free for landlords or neighbors either — lost rental income, turnover costs, and declining property values ripple outward.[7]Good Cause gives renters the right to stay in their homes and communities — building stronger, more stable neighborhoods for renters and homeowners alike.
We urge the Town Board to vote yes on opting in to Good Cause Eviction.

Thank you,
Sarah Wooton
Director of Community Research
Partnership for the Public Good
 

[1] U.S. Census Bureau, “Demographic Characteristics for Occupied Housing Units,” Table S2502, 2020-2024  American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Cheektowaga CDP, New York), accessed August 11, 2026, https://data.census.gov/table?q=S2502:+DEMOGRAPHIC+CHARACTERISTICS+FOR+OCCUPIED+HOUSING+UNITS&g=060XX00US3602915011_160XX00US3615000.
[2] U.S. Census Bureau, “Gross Rent as a Percentage of Household Income in the Past 12 Months,” Table B25070, 2020-2024 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Cheektowaga CDP, New York), accessed August 11, 2026, https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2024.B25070?q=B25070:+Gross+Rent+as+a+Percentage+of+Household+Income+in+the+Past+12+Months&g=160XX00US3615000.
[3] Dr. Sandhya Kajeepeta, “Evictions Are a Racial Justice Crisis: The Promise of Good Cause Protection in New York,” Legal Defense Fund,https://www.naacpldf.org/evictions-racial-justice-good-cause-protection-new-york/.
[4] “New York Tenants Have New Protections from Unfair Evictions & Rent Hikes,” Housing Justice for All, accessed August 11, 2026, https://housingjusticeforall.org/kyr-good-cause/; Walter H Waggoner, “Byrne Signs Tenant Bills, Including Eviction Curbs,” The New York Times, June 26, 1974, https://www.nytimes.com/1974/06/26/archives/byrne-signs-tenant-bills-including-eviction-curbs-good-cause.html.
[5] Matthew Desmond and Carl Gershenson, “Housing and Employment Insecurity among the Working Poor,”

Social Problems 0, (2016): 1-22, 14; Partnership for the Public Good, Evicted in Buffalo: the High Costs of Involuntary Mobility, (report, n.p.: 2020), https://ppgbuffalo.org/files/documents/housing_neighborhoods/general/housingneighborhoods-_evicted_in_buffalo.pdf, 15.
[6] Evicted, 16.
[7] Evicted, 17.