Vacancy Study Makes Poughkeepsie Eligible for Rent Stabilization

Poughkeepsie could soon be the latest city in the Hudson Valley to opt into rent stabilization.

A housing study presented at the city’s Common Council meeting on Tuesday revealed a vacancy rate below 5 percent for qualifying rentals, the Times Union reported. The city’s 3.96 percent vacancy rate allows for a housing emergency to be declared under the state’s Emergency Tenant Protection Act, which can then lead to rent regulation.

A consulting group, the Collective for Community, Culture and Environment, conducted the vacancy study in November and December, analyzing residential buildings constructed before 1974 with at least six units. The consulting group previously conducted a vacancy study in Ossining, which also became eligible for a housing emergency.

The study relied on information provided by owners and managers through the mail, phone or in-person observation. Owners of eligible properties were asked to report on their vacant rentals as of Nov. 1. Exclusions included construction-related vacancies and subsidized housing.

Critically, owners who failed to respond to the survey were counted as not having any vacancies, which probably resulted in the analysis producing a lower vacancy rate than the actual one. There were 112 properties and 1,464 eligible units considered in the study, but the response rate was only 61 percent.

Rent stabilization could prove invaluable for some tenants in Poughkeepsie; one in three renter households in the city spends more than half its income on housing, according to the city’s Housing Needs Assessment. But rent stabilization also stands to rattle landlords whose revenue would be capped.

Rent stabilization also limits owners’ ability to evict: Tenants who are current on rent are entitled to lease renewals, and can even pass leases on to heirs.

Landlords in the Hudson Valley have been taking to the legal system to try and thwart rent regulation in their municipalities. Last month, the Hudson Valley Property Owners Association filed suit against the city of Newburgh, accusing it of manipulating the study. The lawsuit led a state judge to temporarily block rent stabilization.

A similar complaint was made in Kingston in 2022, alleging the city’s enactment of rent stabilization relied on a flawed vacancy study. But while a court temporarily blocked rent stabilization there, too, the state appeals court affirmed the city’s vacancy study and a 15 percent rent cut last month.

During its meeting on Tuesday, the Poughkeepsie Common Council voted to schedule a public hearing for declaring a housing emergency next month.
— Holden Walter-Warner