We Need the ETPA: An Open Letter to the Ossining Village Board

I’ve lived in Ossining for five years now, and there are many things I’ve come to love about this place. I love walking to the farmer’s market and the shops that have popped up on Main Street. I love the view of the Hudson River. Most importantly, I love living in a neighborhood that is diverse in race, ethnicity, language, age, and religion. It’s important to me to be in a community with people from different backgrounds so that we can understand and learn from one another.

Unfortunately, what I am hearing from my friends who live in apartments is that things are really hard right now. They’re seeing huge increases in rents and their buildings are breaking down while the landlords refuse to fix them. They’re scared that if they speak out, they’ll be evicted. And where would they go then? There are precious few apartments available, and they’re all expensive.

This is why we need the Emergency Tenant Protection Act (ETPA). This common sense policy would prevent drastic rent increases, guarantee that people can get a 1-year or 2-year lease, and provide legal protections to ensure basic building maintenance and repairs. Over 1,200 families in the village would see these benefits. In the 2017 housing study commissioned by the Village of Ossining, ETPA was identified as the single most effective available tool to limit exorbitant rent increases.

Unfortunately, the corporate real estate lobby has spread propaganda and misinformation about ETPA. As a homeowner, I’ve received countless messages telling me that I should be very afraid of a “possible tax increase.” That’s all nonsense, of course. Nineteen other communities in Westchester have already had ETPA for decades, and a study from Columbia University showed that none of them have seen any impact on property taxes from ETPA.

What are all these scary postcards about? It’s a disingenuous attempt, funded by the real estate lobby group, the Westchester Builders Institute, to pit Ossining homeowners against Ossining tenants, all for the profits of some out-of-town property management companies. They don’t care about my family or yours. They’re only concerned with extracting as much money as possible from the hardworking people who live in apartments.

Is that who we want to be as a village? A place where we see our neighbors as profit centers rather than people? A place where families are pushed out if they can’t keep paying more every year? A place where only the wealthy matter, and the working class is told “if you don’t like it, you can just leave”?

That’s not who we are in the Village of Ossining. We believe in a village that works for everyone, rich and poor, young and old, tenant and homeowner. We stand together to ensure that our teachers, firefighters, and senior citizens have safe, decent places to live. We should start by passing the Emergency Tenant Protection Act.