Tenants’ advocates fear wave of evictions

Ulster County’s housing crisis was intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic and there could be a “tsunami” of evictions and displacements when the governor’s moratorium on them is lifted in August, a member of the Real Kingston Tenants Union says.

Rashida Tyler addressed the Kingston Common Council’s special housing committee Thursday about work being done by members of the Ulster County Rapid Rehousing working group. She said the group, which has been meeting since late May, is made of people who work directly with the unhoused and housing-insecure.

“We’ve, of course, seen an extra urgency in trying to find housing solutions since the pandemic has occurred,” Tyler said.

Tyler said the working group sprang from the efforts of the Kingston Emergency Food Collaborative. She said the collaborative began receiving calls from people who had no homes and were concerned about going into communal housing, such as a shelter or boarding house due, to the coronavirus. Tyler said the group worked to find immediate resources to help those people but found it was difficult due to the existing housing shortage and affordability issues.

“So the crisis that we have in

terms of housing was really intensified by COVID and made more urgent,” Tyler said.

When the moratorium on evictions that Gov. Andrew Cuomo enacted expires in August, advocates and service providers fear there will be a “tsunami of evictions and potential displacements,” Tyler said.

Alderwoman Michele Hirsch, D-Ward 9, said even though the governor’s moratorium ends in August, courts are scheduled to reopen on Monday. She said that means the area could start to see evictions

happening more quickly for people who were served with notice before the moratorium took effect.

The county working group has found three paths forward to try to address the issues, Tyler said. She said a short-term solution could be the creation of efficiency cottages, while a midterm solution could be the rapid renovation of existing homes, specifically abandoned or vacant properties, in partnership with the city of Kingston and Kingston City Land Bank.

A long-term solution, she said, would be to look at policies that could be enacted to address housing needs, such as potentially adopting a residential vacancy tax or second home tax.

Of the efficiency cottages, Tyler said the working group looked at the model created by Second Wind Cottages in Tompkins County. She said Second Wind built 18 efficiency cottages that serve an allmale population.

Tyler said Second Wind has shared its business plan, floor model, resident conduct policy and list of services with Ulster County’s working group. She said the group would like to start with 10 cottages, if not more, and use them as a proof of concept that other municipalities could follow.

The cottages would serve a population of single men, who typically are more difficult to house than women and children, veterans, or seniors, Tyler said. She said onsite case-management services also would also be offered, with the goal of helping residents move on to housing of their own and being self-sufficient.

Tyler said the working group already has two properties that could be donated to the effort, as well as a group of volunteers ready to help with the construction of the cottages. She said Second Wind’s cottages cost between $15,000 to $18,000 each, but it likely would be less expensive for Ulster County due to the donations and volunteers lined up to help.

Also on Thursday, Kwame Holmes, a professor at Bard College, spoke about the college’s new Housing Justice Lab and a project his students are working on to examine urban poverty and housing issues through the lens of homeownership. He said the rental market in Kingston is “unbelievably tight” and seems to be getting more so every day. In a tight market, he said, landlords, especially those who own a large number of units, can exert enormous influence and power on their tenants’ lives. He said that could lead to landlords not improving their properties or who engaging in price-gouging.

As part of their research, the students looked at 481 pieces of property in a neighborhood in Midtown Kingston that’s bordered by Greenkill Avenue, St. James Street, Broadway and Pine Street, Holmes said. He said of those properties, 275 are owned by people who do not live in the community.

Holmes said the students still are compiling data and looking at what it can tell them, but it is hoped the information can empower local officials to approach the housing issue with the notion that it is co-produced by owners and renters.

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