On November 17, the Kingston city planning board voted unanimously against a plan touted by common council alders Michael Tierney and Michelle Hirsch, which aimed to lower two threshold limits set in the city zoning code which establish the percentage of the Area Median Income (AMI) spent on rent in order for rental housing to be characterized as either ‘affordable’ or ‘workforce.’
Rents, tax breaks, incentives and profits depend upon the parsing of semantics.
The alders argued that because of current definitions baked into the zoning code for the city, many in the workforce can’t afford to rent “workforce housing”, any more than the working poor can afford “affordable housing”.
“I think it’s worth mentioning that in the time that this code was written to now,” said Tierney, “Ulster County AMI has increased 40 percent, which is the highest in New York State and one of the highest in the country.”
Tierney alleged that a continuing post-pandemic influx of higher earners migrating to municipalities surrounding the city has ballooned prices for renters. What the federal government considers affordable has sorely outpaced what city residents can pay.
Members of the planning board reacted with surprise that changes would be recommended so soon after the new code’s adoption. They expressed fears that pushing limits any lower would dampen an atmosphere of housing development just beginning to heat up.
“My bottom-line concern,” shared board chairman Wayne Platte, “is that we’re going to stifle development by going any lower.”
Planning board member Robert Jacobson warned that developers would look elsewhere to build,
Some members expressed the opinion that if the housing supply were increased, rents would fall.
City housing director Bartek Starodaj shared the board members’ fears that reducing the limit further would hobble the overall pipeline of housing coming into the city.
The vote by the planning board expresses an advisory opinion only, and is not binding.
At a meeting of the common council on November 12, several speakers supported the proposed change to Kingston’s AMI.
“As I walk the streets, talk with people, I hear that a guy is working three jobs to maintain housing,” said Greg McCulloch. “He’s barely home, no family time. When someone’s working two to three jobs to pay rent, I think that’s … I think it’s sick. And I find it disgusting that someone has to work that many hours, that many jobs to maintain housing. When they do that, they deprive themselves of family time and self-care.”
Jenna Goldstein, tenant organizer with Hudson Valley non-profit For the Many, agreed.
“At the lowest end of the affordability proposed by the city, a tenant has to pay over $18K per year to rent a studio apartment, well over half of what an average person in Kingston makes,” Goldstein said. “I hope you adopt truly affordable rent for all tenants in Kingston and choose your constituents over out-of-town landlords.”
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