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St. Lawrence County committee calls on state to aid 'victimized' landlords

Posted 1/27/21

BY ANDY GARDNER North Country This Week CANTON – St. Lawrence County legislators supported a resolution calling on the state to give financial assistance to landlords who the bill’s sponsor says …

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St. Lawrence County committee calls on state to aid 'victimized' landlords

Posted

BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week

CANTON – St. Lawrence County legislators supported a resolution calling on the state to give financial assistance to landlords who the bill’s sponsor says are being “victimized” by the state’s moratorium on pandemic eviction restrictions.

They took the action during their Monday, Jan. 25 meeting.

Legislator John Burke, R-Norfolk, sponsored the motion, which passed 13-1-1. Legislator Kevin Acres, R-Madrid, voted no. Legislator Dan Fay, D-Canton, abstained.

Burke said he thinks the state is right to protect renters who are in danger of eviction because pandemic-related financial hardships leave them unable to make rent payments. However, he thinks the state shouldn’t just leave landlords not getting their rent payments.

“In no way are we critical of the protection of vulnerable people,” he said, adding that his motion would “ask the state to put the funding where the funding needs to be and not victimize another group of our citizens, our landlords, and at the same time protecting those who may be vulnerable to evictions.”

Acres said he would be voting against it because it’s not aimed at large corporations who own properties in the county. He said he believes it “discriminates against them.”

“They have giant complexes and giant expenses to go with them,” he said.

The section of the motion Acres took issue with says “Whereas, unlike businesses that are more likely to own giant apartment complexes and multi-family units, individual investors are more likely to own single family homes or duplexes, and whereas most of these individual investors are what are traditionally referred to as ‘mom and pop’ operations, where the individual investor has secured ownership of their rental property through traditional loan financing.”

Legislator Margaret Haggard, D-Potsdam, said she wants to support the landlords in her district.

“In Potsdam, we have a lot of rental properties, and they’re not owned by big corporations, to my knowledge ... they’re primarily mom and pop businesses that augment a family business, or are an entire family business,” Haggard said. “These people are not the people that own a million giant high rises in New York City and have millions and millions on the bank. Those people may be suffering, too.”

Legislator Jim Reagen, R-Ogdensburg, said some landlords aren’t renting empty units because “they’re very concerned that they have no way of enforcing rent collection.”

It’s creating even more of a shortage of housing,” Reagen said. “The sooner that some relief is given to landlords and assurances they will have their rent paid, the sooner the number of people who are living on other peoples’ couches ... scrambling looking for housing will be averted.”

Legislator Joe Lightfoot, R-Ogdensburg, said he supported the motion because landlords not getting rent payments could mean they’re not doing building maintenance which can lead to safety issues for the people living there.

“These property owners still have to pay their taxes. They have to maintain their property. In some cases they have to provide that heat,” he said. “I think it’s very important we advocate for something that will provide some relief to those people ... it could cause other issues down the road with respect to safety for those people that are occupying those rental units.”

Legislator Tony Arquiett, D-Helena, asked County Attorney Stephen Button if anyone on the board who is a landlord should abstain from voting, as Fay is and did.

Button said there isn’t a conflict of interest there, and likened it to voting to reduce taxes.

“There’s been a whole bunch of ethical decisions that have been put out there ... that addressed issues of a legislator to vote on an issue generically that they may generically benefit from,” Button said. “The benefit they’re voting on is not specific to them, is broad enough to encompass the entire citizenry.”

“While it’s geared at those individual investors ... the resolution itself is not limited to that,” he said.