First-term county legislator Jeff Collins has been appointed to lead a subcommittee to examine Ulster County’s initiatives in providing housing. Faced two and a half years ago with the combined effect of the pandemic, the dramatic increase in drug-related deaths, and the general lack of affordable housing, the legislature designated $1.5-million of federal money to implement a respite-house (crisis-center) policy “for the purpose of addressing the need for enhanced mental-health and addiction-recovery services throughout Ulster County.”
The new subcommittee is tasked much more broadly. It will not only examine compliance with the respite-house policy, but also consider the need for a policy on unreasonable rent increases, measure the success of existing programs, and provide recommendations “for expansion or redirection.”
It’ll be the one centralized place in the legislature for the implementation of existing housing policies and exploration of new housing policies. It’ll “compile and take a deeper dive examining housing policies for presentation to the legislature.”
Subcommittee members other than Collins, whose district represents Woodstock and West Hurley, are legislators Craig Lopez of Shawangunk and Wawarsing and Greg McCollough of the City of Kingston.
The first meeting of the subcommittee on housing is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, April 4 in the county office building in Kingston.
Join the family! 
