Dozens of housing advocates gathered on the steps of Rochester City Hall Wednesday, pushing for City Council to take action on rent stabilization.
The advocates stood in the frigid temperatures to again call on City Council to opt-in to new state guidelines on how to determine rental vacancy rates. Those rates help determine whether a community can implement rent control.
A couple of years ago, a city study found that Rochester’s rental vacancy rate was too high to justify rent control, but how that study was carried out has been a point of contention.
Barb Rivera, an advocate with the City-Wide Tenant Union, said at Wednesday's rally that too many people in Rochester, especially those on fixed incomes can’t find affordable housing.
“We just can't expect folks to just live in these type of spaces,” said Rivera, “and with…the cost of living, it doesn't add up, people have to work three to four jobs to just be able to make it, missing out on their children's lives, and it's just an unproductive system.”
There are some members of City Council who were at Wednesday’s rally and said that they back a new rental vacancy study with the new state guidelines.
Councilmember Mary Lupien, a long-time housing advocate, had harshly criticized the previous vacancy study for its low response rate. She said redoing the study is critical for stable housing in the city.
“Rents are skyrocketing, they are rising way faster than the rate of incomes, and I think, as a city, a part of the reason why we pay taxes is for the common good, and we want to make sure people have affordable places to stay,” Lupien said in December.
The full City Council has not yet taken up the proposal to do another rental vacancy study.
This story includes reporting by WXXI's Gino Fanelli.
