“For the Many” says landlords’ claim of inaccurate Newburgh housing vacancy doesn’t hold any water

NEWBURGH – The organization “For the Many” says a landlords’ group that claims the City of Newburgh has flawed housing vacancy data is incorrect.

For the city to declare a housing emergency and enact rent stabilization, its housing vacancy rate must fall under five percent. An in-house study says it has a 4.3 percent vacancy rate.

But Hudson Valley Property Owners Association Executive Director Rich Lanzarone said the city’s study is flawed and actually has a vacancy rate of 6.35 percent.

For the Many Executive Director Jonathan Bix, meanwhile, said on Wednesday that there is “no basis” for the landlords’ study.

• “The city went through the process, did a neutral study,” he said. “Anybody can do their own, sort of, non-systematic study instead that proves something,” he said. “As we have seen in other cities, landlords are just opposed to rent stabilization – most of them – so we don’t have any credence to a landlord and neither does anybody else.”

The city council will now weigh its options decide if it wants to go forward with the issue.

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