In Kingston, tenants say they fear eviction amid turmoil at City Hall that threatens local rent-stabilization policies.
Amanda Treasure lives at Stony Run at the Stockade Apartments – Kingston’s largest rent-stabilized property.
Treasure says both she and her husband are unemployed. Her husband was hurt on the job in 2012 and is on disability, and she recently retired and is in remission for pancreatic cancer.
A lifelong Kingston resident, Treasure has lived in her three-bedroom apartment for nearly 20 years with her husband and 19-year-old son.
She currently pays around $1,450 a month, plus utilities for the top-floor apartment. That monthly payment has been the same since 2022 when Kingston moved to regulate rents in line with New York's Emergency Tenant Protection Act.
The city is one of the only upstate municipalities where rent control has stuck.
But recent actions by city leaders threaten the future of rent costs – a prospect that worries Treasure.
“This ETPA needs to stay in place because we need to have rent control so that people can afford to live and have a roof over their head, because with it being because they want to change this to be workforce housing, but then what happens to the people that aren't working,” Treasure said.
Data show Kingston’s residents are struggling to make ends meet. According to 2023 U.S. Census Bureau numbers, Kingston’s poverty rate was 19.1 percent – a 3.67 percent increase from 2022.
Meanwhile, the bureau’s 2024 national poverty rate was 10.6 percent – a .4 percent decrease from the previous year.
Speaking with WAMC in her home Friday, Treasure says the rising cost of living is detrimental. Treasure says with costs skyrocketing for health care, utilities, and basic needs, she’s struggling.
“It's just like, you just can't live, groceries, it's like, everything is so expensive,” Treasure said.
Kingston’s rent stabilization is in jeopardy as leaders mull the extent of the housing emergency -- New York's Emergency Tenant Protection Act requires municipalities to declare such an emergency before implementing rent control. In order for an emergency to exist, vacancy rates – which reflect the number of available rental units – must be at or below 5%.
Last month, the council approved a resolution declaring a housing emergency in the city of roughly 24,000 residents after one recent study found a vacancy rate of 4.55 percent – below the threshold.
But Democratic Mayor Steve Noble vetoed the measure. Noble had previously asked the council to review the findings of a vacancy study released in August that found a vacancy rate of more than 7% for homes built before 1974.
The 4.55% rate cited by the council’s resolution is the net vacancy rate for all housing in the city, but Noble says the resolution “misconstrues aspects” of the 2025 vacancy study and contains factual errors that could invite legal challenges.
In his veto, Noble claimed a follow up to the study this summer found “evidence of fewer vacancies within these buildings that had been self-reported,” exclusion of eligible properties in the study, and incomplete data.
In response to all of this, the outgoing Kingston Common Council voted Tuesday to recommend the next council overturn the mayor’s recent veto.
Speaking with WAMC Wednesday, Kingston Alderwoman Michelle Hirsch disputed Noble’s characterization.
“His claim that we are misinterpreting, you know, recommendations made in the study, we have the right,” Hirsch said. “The council has a legislative authority to look at that study, to look at the data in that study, and make our own determinations. We are not required to follow the findings of the study, but hold public hearings and look at all of the data before us.”
Noble has said he supports continuing the city’s housing emergency for properties with more than 22 units.
But Treasure says that doesn’t seem fair to people who currently live in buildings that have fewer than 22 units.
“I'm sure most of them are struggling and have to probably work more than one job in order to be able to live where they're living because of the prices of the rent, you know. And we're not going to stop fighting,” Treasure said.
Noble did not return several interview requests from WAMC.
The next council meeting is Tuesday, Jan. 6 at 7 p.m. At this meeting, councilors will discuss a resolution to override Noble’s veto.
