Kingston still awaiting data from study of vacancies
City officials still are awaiting the completion of a study intended to determine whether Kingston can opt into a rent-control initiative.
Summer Smith, Kingston’s director of communications and community engagement, said Friday that the city has not yet received the report from Rochester-based Center for Governmental Research, which is being paid $32,000 for its work.
Smith previously said the report was likely to be completed by the end of December, then later she said by the end of January.
“We haven’t received the study results yet,” she said in an email Friday. “I’ll let you know when we do.”
The process began in early
November, when the Center for Governmental Research sent a letter to landlords who own properties in Kingston. The letter said the study would help Kingston “determine whether Kingston qualifies for rent stabilization under the newly revised New York State Emergency Tenant Protection Act.”
The revised state law allows municipalities with a vacancy rate of less than 5 percent to enact local rentstabilization laws and regulations. The regulations would apply to rental buildings that were built before 1974 and have six or more units.
Kingston Alderman Patrick O’Reilly said previously that rent control in Kingston would hurt residents by reducing the number of rental units available in the city. O’Reilly, of Ward 7, cast the lone vote against hiring the Center for Governmental Research when the Common Council authorized the study last September.
O’Reilly said rent control would cause many landlords to convert their properties back to single-family homes and sell them, leading to gentrification and a loss of rental housing. He said the city needs to find other ways to help renters, such as a tax-rebate program or other form of assistance.
Some city lawmakers who voted to hire the Center for Governmental Research said they were not necessarily in favor of enacting rent control in Kingston but felt the matter deserved discussion and consideration. They said the vacancy study would provide necessary information.
Last May, the council called on state lawmakers to strike geographic restrictions from New York’s Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974 so local governments could take an active role in addressing the cost of rental housing and provide rental rights to tenants.
The act, which was set to expire last year before the state Legislature took action, provides protections, including rent stabilization, under which landlords are subject to regulated rent increases and tenants have the right to renew leases, according to the city’s resolution.
Before being amended, the act only applied to New York City and municipalities in Rockland, Westchester and Nassau counties.