Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - What would the return of an eviction moratorium do for certain areas of the City of Buffalo?
Buffalo Common Councilman Rasheed Wyatt is advancing a resolution to the council calling for a 6-month temporary prohibition of eviction within certain zip codes in the City of Buffalo in order to combat the alarming eviction rate in his University District.
"I had some conversations with my colleagues and they were concerned about some of the small businesses, or small mom and pop folks who were home renters or renting to folks," said Councilman Wyatt. "I'm really asking for the landlord and the tenants to work together to see what they can do, instead of us having a high eviction eviction rate. [A] 55% [eviction rate] in the 14125 is very disconcerting. I needed to do something to bring the attention to what we can do to mitigate this problem."
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This effort has many landlords concerned. Lisa Damiani, Executive Director for the WNY Property Owners Association says that some landlords are still recovering from the previous New York State's moratorium, which ended in January 2022.
"The impact was devastating. Especially small landlords, small property owners, who had no recourse. They had no income coming in, they were continuing to. in some cases, pay utilities and so forth, having to upkeep the property, pay their mortgage, pay their taxes. There's there's different ways of solving a problem. shifting the burden to somebody else is not the way to solve a problem."
Damiani also notes, "The moratorium gave people a false sense that they didn't have to meet their obligation. There are people that certainly were hurt through the the closing down of our economy, there's no doubt about that. But, like I said, shifting the burden to another group of people is not a solution. The solution is providing support, providing assistance."
Some Council members weighed in on concerns from city residents.
"Today I had two or three people that contacted the office that said, 'I had tenants that were working full-time and they took advantage of this and wouldn't pay me.' One guy said he had to work overtime every week on his job, just to pay for what he was losing because the tenants weren't paying," said North District Councilman Joseph Golombek.
"Now, that shouldn't happen. Neither should the other aspect either. But once again, it's not a one size fits all type of a rule. At least it shouldn't be. And I want to be able to protect those Mom and Pop people that have those properties in the neighborhood that are the good landlords that take care of their properties."
The item was sent to the Community Development committee where it will be discussed further. Councilman Wyatt hopes to see tenants, community members show up as well as landlords to hear accurate testimony from both parties.
In addition, Councilman Wyatt will also be holding an emergency meeting. "In the meantime, I'm going to be doing an emergency meeting, assisting those who are potentially being evicted, as well as those who need some funds for back rent. So at the same time, I'm not still sitting here with my hands folded, we're trying to do something until we have our committee meeting next week."
While this resolution can not force New York State to do anything, Councilman Wyatt hopes that this sends a message to state.