With New York State’s eviction moratorium set to expire this week, Kingston lawmakers are fast-tracking efforts to get Good Cause Eviction legislation on the books.

Common Council President Andrea Shaut announced the council will hold a special meeting tonight at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall to hold a final vote on law which gives tenants additional protections from arbitrary evictions and steep rent hikes.

That vote had been scheduled to take place at the council’s next regular monthly meeting on Feb. 1. But Shaut said the looming expiration of the eviction moratorium — in place since March 2020 — made faster action imperative.

“On January 15 the eviction moratorium will expire,” wrote Shaut in a meeting announcement posted on the city’s website Thursday. “After discussions with Majority Leader Rita Worthington, we feel it is the council’s obligation to hold the second reading and the vote for the proposed Good Cause Eviction legislation before January 15.”

The new law would set limits on landlords’ ability to evict tenants, as well as impose rent increases. The legislation also allows tenants to go to court to challenge annual rent increases of more than 5 percent. In order to impose a higher rent increase, property owners would need to demonstrate an increase in operating or maintenance costs that justified the move. Tenants will be able to continue to renew their leases, even if the property changes hands, and grants them the right to reoccupy units that have been deemed uninhabitable once the property owner remediates the issue.

Tenants can still be evicted for nonpayment of rent, violating lease agreements, creating a nuisance at the property or using the residence for illegal activity. Landlords of properties with less than 12 units can also evict a tenant to make room or themselves or a family member of if they are changing the use of the property — for example, by converting a multi-family home into a single-family.

The new law would apply to owner occupied properties of three or more units and non-owner-occupied properties of two or more.

The legislation was introduced by Mayor Steve Noble back in September amid a push by housing advocates to get municipalities to pass Good Cause Eviction laws after a campaign for a statewide version stalled in the legislature. The cities of Hudson, Poughkeepsie and Albany have already passed their own Good Cause Eviction laws.

Proponents of the measure in Kingston say it’s needed to prevent the displacement of longtime city residents by landlords seeking to cash in on the city’s red-hot real estate market. But the proposal has faced fierce criticism from some property owners who say it will hurt small-scale landlords by imposing new obstacles to evicting bad tenants. Opponents also say the law will discourage the development of badly needed rental housing in the city. Challenges to the law in state court are likely.

The council that will take up the legislation tonight includes four new members who have not yet weighed in on the law. Two aldermen who consistently voted against Good Cause Eviction, Don Tallerman and Patrick O’Reilly, are no longer on the council.

The hybrid meeting will be livestreamed. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/328117832548317