Members of the public, some of them unhoused, last week urged the Ulster County Legislature to support a proposed local law designating affordable housing as a public purpose and vital county function.
Katrina Houser moved to Kingston with her mother as a young girl in 1974 and has lived there ever since. She said she’s been homeless since February after her building was sold to investors who wanted to turn it into a short-term vacation rental.
“The court system didn’t help us,” Houser said. “Me and my roommate, who is 80 and had four heart attacks, are homeless and there’s nowhere to put us…My mother, who has been in her house for 17 years, as of Friday will be homeless. I have to leave Kingston, a place that I love because I have nowhere else to go here. And nobody’s doing anything about it. And it’s sad. I’m a lifelong resident with nowhere to go.”
Houser was joined by over 20 other people from across the county who are hoping legislators will vote in favor of the law at their next meeting on Tuesday, April 18. County Executive Jen Metzger has already indicated that she will sign the bill into law.
The law would be the latest in local efforts to combat a housing crisis sweeping across the county, which has seen the short-term rental boom through websites like AirBnb turn some of the area’s housing stock from apartments into hotel alternatives for vacationers. Saugerties resident Brittany Barnard spoke about the trend in her community.
“The Village of Saugerties has over...
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