The board held multiple public hearings last week to collect comment from landlords and tenants. Kingston has maintained a rent freeze since 2023, which applies to properties with more than six units built before 1974, as per New York’s Emergency Tenant Protection Act.
With her landlord in the audience, resident Lisa Lerner was one of about a dozen residents urging the board to keep the freeze. After moving into her unit in 2021, Lerner said her rent spiked by $85 a month. She worries it could happen again.
“I’m not a great math person, but I know that it’s going to keep going up if it’s allowed to be. And that just means it increases more than I can afford," she said. "I’m already paying 50 percent of my income monthly as a freelance writer and teacher to afford to stay in the apartment.”
Kingston is the only upstate municipality to successfully adopt rent stabilization by opting in to the ETPA in 2022. That year, the board also voted to reduce rent by 15 percent, but the move has been mired in lawsuits from landlords’ groups. The New York Court of Appeals finally ruled last week that the city’s rent stabilization law — and the 15 percent reduction — were valid, allowing the board’s work to continue.
Many tenants who addressed the board said they never saw the 15 percent reduction in 2022.
“I don’t think ETPA, with what it was meant to do, has really had a chance [to work], considering the lawsuit," said Charles Sanchez, who spoke on behalf of a number of tenants at Dutch Village Apartments in Kingston. "None of the Dutch Village residents have received any of the required rent reductions.”
Multiple tenants also reported that they weren’t receiving annual or two-year renewal leases, as required by the ETPA. They also said their landlords weren’t properly maintaining or repairing units.
City resident Michael Negron said he can’t afford a rent increase because he’s already being squeezed by his Central Hudson Gas & Electric bill. He said his one-bedroom unit can cost upwards of $600 a month to heat in the winter, because his landlord refuses to fix the heating system in his building.
“If rent went up, I would surely be driven out of the area," he told the board. "Removing the rent freeze will allow landlords who already refuse to do what’s right continue to take advantage of their tenants.”
Asked if he filed any complaints against his landlord with New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR), the state’s affordable housing agency, Negron said he didn’t. Multiple speakers said they didn’t file complaints because they either didn’t know where to go or couldn’t figure out the process.
Board Member Arlene Puentes urged tenants to either file a service complaint or an overcharge complaint with the agency’s Office of Rent Administration.
“If people aren’t filing complaints, and the state is saying, ‘Well, no one is filing complaints,' it’s very frustrating," she noted.
Vince Vaccaro was one of the only landlords to address the board. Vaccaro, who owns a building with seven units, said the rent freeze is killing his business and holding down the building’s value. He asked the board to pass a 2 percent rate increase.
“Everybody knows real estate always goes up in value over time, that’s inflation. That didn’t happen here," said Vaccaro. "We’re losing money over here, we’re not making any money. And I think we’re entitled, because we take a lot of good care of our properties.”
But Board Member Noah Kippley-Ogman pushed back, asking if Vaccaro participated in a recent survey of landlords conducted by the HCR. Vaccaro said he did.
“Across all the buildings that responded to that survey, expenses went down. There was an increase in income, and a decrease in expenses," said Kippley-Ogman. "That’s the data that this board has reported from landlords like you.”
“My expenses have gone up, and obviously my income has not," responded Vaccaro. "I don’t know what surveys — they’re lies, they have lies in statistics. I don't know what statistics you're using. If my rent didn’t go up, but my insurance went up, and my water went up, and my mortgage went up — how do you calculate that I’m making more money now than I was three years ago? It’s voodoo math.”
Kippley-Ogman suggested Vaccaro file a “hardship” application with the HCR to receive support for landlords with struggling properties.
Any new guidelines passed by the board will apply to leases that start between October 1 and September 30, 2026. The board’s next meeting is Thursday at 6 p.m. in Kingston City Hall.
