ROCHESTER, N.Y. – If you rent your home, a measure being hotly debated in Albany right now could have a direct effect on your wallet.  It’s called Good Cause Eviction. And Wednesday, Republicans representing areas across the state came out strongly against it.

Good Cause Eviction sets limits on how much landlords can raise the rent.  The New York Post reported on Tuesday that sources indicate a compromise is in the works, raising the limit from three percent to 10 percent. The measure also mandates that a landlord show cause when evicting a tenant, even after the lease expires. And this measure is very controversial.

Yalitza Galan’s situation illustrates the complexity of this issue. She’s a Rochester tenant who has lived in her rented three-bedroom home for six years. A scripture that references home hangs conspicuously above the entry to Galan’s kitchen.  But in just weeks she’ll be without a home. 

“I got to get out so that he can bring another family in and get more money,” said Galan. “Because if you look at the brackets at what rents go for, this house he could put up for a lot more money than what I can afford.”

Galan gets rental assistance from Section 8 which must first approve an increase in rent. Her landlord wants her out by the end of the month. By phone he told me he wants to evict her not because he wants to raise the rent but because he says Galan has been a troublesome tenant.

“I pay all of my bills like any American, like any taxpayer, and yet I cannot have a safe place to live,” said Galan. 

She makes $18.50 an hour and her husband, a forklift driver, was recently disabled in an accident on the job. She says she struggles to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table for her family of five.

If a Good Cause Eviction becomes law, Galan could refuse to leave and take her landlord to court, forcing him to prove he has just cause to kick her out.

“You’re going to have landlords who are going to sell, said Rob Ortt, a Republican who serves as Minority Leader of the state Senate. ”Small landlords who own 20 units or 10 units or four units they’re going to sell.”

Republican legislators held a press conference in Albany on Wednesday, saying the law would have disastrous consequences because it would be too difficult to evict disruptive, destructive tenants even after their lease expires.

“Good Cause Eviction is not going to inspire new building,” said Pam Helming, A Republican state senator who serves at the ranking member of Housing, Construction, and Community Development.

She says that would lead to not only fewer rental units and higher prices, but also fewer jobs and a weakened New York.

“And we all know, without sufficient housing, larger businesses will move elsewhere,” said Helming. “They’re not going to continue to invest in New York State.”

Democrats dispute that argument pointing to states like New Jersey which enacted a similar law without suffering ill-effects.

Republicans on the other hand point to St. Paul, Minnesota where they say a similar measure devastated home building and job creation.

But this is without question, decisions made here in Albany will have a direct effect on tenants like Galan and the small local landlord who owns her house.

“What is out there for a family like me to make it?” she asked tearfully. “Because I work non-stop, six days a week, and I can’t make it. I can’t make it.”

Good Cause Eviction has failed in New York many times before, but New York Governor Kathy Hochul reportedly told the Post that this time it could make it over the finish line. New York’s state budget was due on April 1. The legislature plans to vote Thursday to extend the deadline to April 16. And all are waiting anxiously to see what version of this measure, if any, is included in that final draft.