Evictions are soaring across the country as rents and home prices skyrocket and pandemic rental assistance dries up. The housing crisis has become particularly acute in New York: evictions are on the rise statewide, and New York City rents have increased by over a third in the past year and are by far the most expensive among major cities.

Yet the Democrats who control New York’s state government just concluded their legislative session without passing a popular good cause eviction bill that would have prevented landlords from kicking out tenants just to drastically raise rents. The legislative defeat came in the wake of the real estate industry pouring millions into Democratic governor Kathy Hochul’s campaign coffers and lobbying hard to protect its right to jack up rents and evict tenants.

Hochul has received more than $5 million in real estate cash since 2021, according to a review of campaign finance records by us. Meanwhile, a landlord front group spent at least $930,000 on an advertising and advocacy campaign opposing the good cause eviction bill.