Last year, New York City evictions were up 12% compared to 2023. While the increase was smaller compared to 2022 and 2023 after the city implemented eviction moratoriums during the pandemic, it comes in the face of "good cause" tenant protections passed by the state legislature in April 2024.

The new set of laws protects tenants living in unregulated apartments from being evicted without a predetermined reason. “Good cause" includes things like not paying rent, breaching aspects of a lease, illegal activity or plans to take the unit off-market. It also includes limits on rent increases for applicable buildings based on local inflation rates (although landlords may increase rent by more if they explain why and show evidence of increased costs or repairs). The laws also exempt a variety of buildings, including buildings built since 2009 or buildings where a landlord owns less than 10 units throughout the city.

Courts are the only mechanism for enforcing the new rules. As reported by City Limits, some lawyers and tenant advocates doubt their ability to defend against a landlord in eviction court based on the new rules.

“What if the landlord says, 'I want to demolish, you need to move out,'' and then the landlord never does. But then the landlord says: 'No, it was in good faith, I just changed my mind," said Jeremiah Schlotman, director of litigation for housing at Legal Services NYC when speaking to City Limits.

The most significant increase in evictions came from Queens, which saw an 86% spike compared to other boroughs that saw a range of 9-25%. The source of this concentration is unclear. NYCHA housing evictions in Queens showed decreases in evictions while the city's rate rose.

The concentration may be related to the backup in Queens housing courts since COVID. According to an investigation by WABC-7 in November 2024, a group of property owners sued the Queens Court Administrator who said the court had added five new judges in recent weeks to deal with the backlog. This response may have sped up evictions in Queens more than other boroughs that were more adequately able to deal with increasing evictions in the past two years.

Queens may also have more litigious landlords. In August, Gothamist reported on a 20-building Queens complex called LeFrak City, home to the highest number of evictions in the city but only a small fraction of the overall increase. The owner of LeFrak City sued the state's Office of Court Administrators to speed up removals. Most removals due to late payments would not be protected under the "good cause" law.

It's difficult to determine the impact of the new tenant protections. The recent rise and Queens' hike in eviction underscores the complexities of the situation. As housing courts continue to clear their backlogs, the coming months will tell if these laws can deliver on their promises.