Lawmakers will appoint people to the state's temporary Affordable Housing Commission in the coming weeks after tabling several affordable housing proposals, including the Good Cause Eviction bill, this session.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie will each appoint eight members, including people representing tenants, real estate, building and construction trades and others with affordable housing experience, to the 25-member commission to study how to best use state and federal resources to maintain affordable housing in New York. 

Legislative leaders are expected to make the first appointments in the coming weeks. A vote by the Legislature is not required.

"We look forward to continuing to stand up for affordable housing and for tenants across New York state," Senate Democratic spokesman Mike Murphy said Monday. "The Senate helped pass the most tenant-friendly rent regulations in the nation and we look forward to this first-of-its-kind commission to help move New York forward once again standing up for tenants."

Tenants' rights advocates are criticizing lawmakers for leaving Albany without passing legislation to address a worsening housing crisis.

First proposed in 2019, the Good Cause Eviction bill would cap a property owner raising rent to 1.5 times the Consumer Price Index, or 3%, and help protect a tenant's right to renew their lease if they've been paying rent on time and following the terms of the agreement. It died in both legislative houses this session.

Good Cause Eviction sponsor Assemblywoman Pam Hunter said the bill was put on the back burner to legal challenges to New York's redistricting process, scandals surrounding former lieutenant governor Brian Benjamin, as well as gun reform and abortion legislation. 

"I think this session was just very different from some other sessions," Hunter said Monday. 

If signed into law, the Good Cause Eviction bill would prevent no-fault evictions to about 1.6 million New York households, or about 4 million people.​

The bill would also allow paying tenants to sue landlords for forcing them to leave their home by increasing rent outside the threshold. Landlords would be permitted to increase rent above the 3% threshold if they can demonstrate substantial upgrades to the unit or an unexpected maintenance increase in court.

​"It's about providing an opportunity for people to stay in their homes," Hunter said. "Where we are right now, there is no availability of apartment for the low-income working professional, working people outside the parameters of getting Social Services, and even in those instances, there is just not housing available."

Issues with federal and state relief for tenants and landlords also made lawmakers hesitant to enact more reforms, she added.

"There's been a lot of housing concerns since 2019, and here we are in 2022 trying to get this piece of legislation passed," said Hunter, a Democrat from Syracuse. "People are gun shy relative to putting that forward because of everything that has happened with housing in the last two years."

Opponents to rent regulation or stabilization argue it will discourage the development of new housing or lead to the deterioration of quality and existing housing. 

The Pratt Center for Community Development and the Community Service Society published a policy brief last month​ countering arguments from opponents that the Good Cause Eviction bill would impact property owners building or maintaining housing or lead to landlord disinvestment.

Other housing reform proposals that failed to advance include legislation regulating accessory dwelling units, a state section 8 housing program and statewide right to counsel for low-income tenants.

Housing advocates hope the commission will act swiftly to make recommendations on the list of stalled proposals.

"They've created this commission to study housing which is fine, but I think we already know that we're in a housing crisis and that good cause eviction would be incredibly helpful to millions of renters all over the state," said Samuel Stein, a housing policy analyst with Community Services Society of New York.

The commission will issue a public report to lawmakers with affordable housing recommendations by the end of the year to help them decide which bills to advance next session. The commission will no longer exist one year after the last member is appointed.

"I hope this commission will be an opportunity to clear up a lot of the misinformation that was shared about the bill," said Sylvia Morse, Pratt Center for Community Development program manager for policy. "The opposition was able to out-spend groups that represent low-income tenants and homeless people significantly.

Existing money from the state Division of Home and Community Renewal will fund the commission.

“The budget included Gov. Hochul’s bold, comprehensive, $25 billion, five-year housing plan that tackles systemic inequities by creating or preserving 100,000 affordable homes, including 10,000 homes with support services for vulnerable populations," state Budget Division spokesman Shams Tarek said Monday. "This bill will be reviewed.”

New Jersey has had Good Cause protections in place for about five decades.

"Their rate of housing production per capita is higher than New York state," Stein said. "...You can have a strong supply of housing in terms of quantity and quality and have strong eviction protections at the same time. We don't have to choose."

The Senate held a legislative hearing on Good Cause Eviction late last year. Democrats in the Assembly majority have not met to discuss the issue as a conference nor held a hearing about the bill to date.