Is Kingston’s housing emergency coming to an end?
On Wednesday, August 13, the city released the findings of their 2025 Vacancy Survey to show a 7.04% vacancy rate. This exceeds the 5% vacancy rate needed to officially trigger a citywide emergency declaration, empowering officials to initiate rent stabilization in multi-unit housing complexes built before 1974 under the Emergency Tenant Protection Act.
According to Mayor Steve Noble, “The latest survey finds that the net vacancy rate for ETPA-covered properties exceeds the percentage required to declare a municipality-wide housing emergency. However, buildings containing more than 22 units do still fall under the 5% vacancy threshold needed to declare a housing emergency.”
Noble called upon the Common Council to review the survey results after they are presented to the Laws and Rules Committee on August 20.
“We hope that some of the city’s many housing efforts are starting to relieve the housing pressures,” Noble wrote.
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