Lawmakers urged to take on housing
Residents ask legislators to develop affordable housing projects
KINGSTON, N.Y. >> In 1974, Katrina Houser moved to Kingston with her mother. Now, she told members of the Ulster County Legislature on Tuesday, both she and her elderly mother will have to leave the community where they built their lives because they can no longer afford to live in the city they love.
“I’m a lifelong resident with nowhere to go, with an income to pay rent, but the rent’s too high for me to pay it,” she said.
Houser was one of 25 residents from throughout the county to speak during an hour-long public hearing to urge legislators to designate affordable housing as an Ulster County “public purpose” and vital county function. The designation would give the county broad powers to develop, manage and maintain affordable housing projects in the county.
Houser said that she was evicted from her home in February after it was sold and the new owner decided to convert her former home into a short-term rental unit.
“I stand before you today homeless,” she said. “My mother who has been in her house for 17 years, as of Friday will be homeless.”
Shawn Gallo said that after his wife of 16 years died, his landlord sold the home they had lived in. Now, he said, he and his daughter “bounce from hotel to hotel” unable to find an affordable home.
“The gentrification and displacement has gotten way out of hand,” said Kingston resident Anne Ames. “There is no housing. People don’t have any place to go.”
“Housing is a human right,” said John Schoomaker, a Saugerties resident, cochairman of the Mid-Hudson Democratic Socialists of America and a member of Citizens Action statewide housing coalition. “This is the mindset
we must have if we are to address the ongoing housing crisis here in Ulster County.”
“We can never rely on private developers to solve this crisis. It is one of their own making meant to squeeze as much out of the middle class as possible,” he said.
The 2021 Ulster County Housing Plan showed a significant lack of affordable housing throughout the county, indicating that the average wager earner in Ulster County has to work at least 67 hours a week to avoid being considered “rent burdened,” which is defined as spending more than one-third of one’s income on housing costs.
The proposed law is the latest in a series of steps the county has taken to increase the available housing stock, improve existing dwellings and develop more protections for those struggling with the high cost of housing.
Lawmakers are expected to vote on the proposed local law at its April meeting.
County Executive Jen Metzger has said she would sign the bill into law.