This month, New York might finally adopt a policy that renters across the state, including me, have needed for years: Good Cause Eviction. Good Cause could provide protections from unreasonable rent hikes and evictions for roughly 4 million tenants, helping to ensure safety and stability in our communities. Good landlords who don’t evict their tenants without good reason have nothing to fear from this law, and could in fact even benefit from having clearer guidance around eviction proceedings. Tellingly, bad landlords and big developers are fighting these protections with all they’ve got — including the ear of state legislators.

Politicians are meant to represent our interests, not the real estate industry’s. For too long, elected officials have sided with lobbying groups like the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) instead of renters. It appears they are poised to do that once again based on the tenor of budget negotiations. Our legislators owe it to New Yorkers to pass Good Cause protections for every tenant in the state and maintain the rent regulations put in place in 2019. Then, they need to do more.

Safeguarding the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA) and ensuring effective, universal Good Cause protections at the state level is absolutely critical for working families like mine. Right now, we are dealing with skyrocketing costs of living that mean a $100 rent increase might as well be an eviction notice. (It’s worth noting that without Good Cause protections, landlords can also opt to raise rents by, say, $500 rather than issuing an eviction notice.) As the legislature considers compromising on a housing deal, REBNY is pushing for rollbacks of the HSTPA, which would gut protections for rent-stabilized tenants, and a watered-down version of Good Cause Eviction that includes an “opt-in” provision and portfolio size exemptions. The provision would, on paper, give localities the choice to adopt Good Cause. In reality, these protections would leave out upstate New York, where hundreds of thousands of renters live in small towns and rural areas that are unlikely to opt in.

An opt-in provision would make it all but impossible for Good Cause to apply to renters outside New York City because of — you guessed it — politics. These areas tend to be re represented by Republicans and conservative Democrats who have not, and simply will not, advocate for the needs of the renters in their districts. That’s exactly what I’ve seen as a resident of one such district, and it’s why, as a lifelong renter, I’ve decided to run for State Assembly. My family needs Good Cause protections. So do my neighbors, colleagues, and countless others across the state.

Although there could be a path to securing Good Cause in some upstate cities like Albany or Newburgh, most renters in the region are spread out over hundreds of villages and towns that are not going to enact these protections, despite having a clear need for them. Even in larger cities such as Buffalo and Rochester, Good Cause Eviction would surely face organized opposition that would push local opting in back by several years. In the Mid-Hudson Valley, where I live, there are about 320,000 renters; if all of the “major cities” in the area were to opt in to Good Cause, the protections would apply to a maximum of 70,000 renters, or barely 20 percent of all tenants in the region. An opt-in measure only works if there’s a real chance of opting in; in most places, there isn’t.

And, unless the legislature overcomes REBNY’s influence and passes the Good Cause bill as written — without portfolio-size exemptions for anyone but the smallest landlords — there is no doubt that predatory landlords will find loopholes to evade Good Cause. There are a number of landlords with substantial building portfolios who don’t even live in New York, who would have every incentive to create LLCs that make them appear to own fewer buildings than they really do. And they will.

This would be a travesty for upstate tenants, who deal with the price gouging landlords and fears of retaliatory eviction common to all New York renters. We deserve the same protections, and the only way to ensure we get them is if they apply statewide.

But Good Cause is just the first step in addressing New York’s worsening housing crisis. We need to see more comprehensive solutions coming out of Albany, including the statewide expansion of rent stabilization protections, like the ones we’re seeing throughout the Hudson Valley, and the Housing Access Voucher Program, which would provide rental subsidies to help New Yorkers with low incomes avoid eviction and homelessness. We need to invest in more affordable housing through the creation of a Social Housing Development Authority and do everything we can to make sure existing housing stays affordable. We need to keep people in their homes right now. Good Cause Eviction is our best starting point.

Claire Cousin will challenge incumbent Assemblywoman Didi Barrett in the June primary for the Democratic line in the 106th Assembly District.