Kingston was the first upstate municipality to adopt rent stabilization in New York, but it’s becoming a symbol of how challenges to the designation remain strong.
This week, Mayor Steve Noble vetoed a Common Council resolution to maintain rent stabilization in the city, the Times Union reported. The Common Council’s resolution from last week to declare a housing emergency was unanimous, setting up a clash and potential veto override.
Data disputes are driving the debacle. A city vacancy study found rates in buildings covered by the Emergency Tenant Protection Act at 7.04 percent this spring, above a 5 percent limit required to declare a “housing emergency” and keep rent caps in place. But the Council pointed to a 4.55 percent citywide vacancy rate.
Noble said the Common Council’s resolution, which cites the 4.55 percent vacancy rate determined by an independent consultant hired by the city’s Office of Housing Initiatives, “misconstrues aspects of the 2025 vacancy study and contains several factual errors.” Namely, the city’s report did not calculate a city-wide vacancy rate and the consultant only analyzed nine properties for its study.
Last August, the state’s Court of Appeals rejected a challenge from the Hudson Valley Property Owners Association, which argued the city’s 2022 vacancy study was flawed and that its Rent Guidelines Board overreached by ordering a 15 percent rent rollback in stabilized buildings, allowing the reduction to stand and opening the door for tenants to seek refunds.
The 2022 and 2025 city vacancy studies did have different methodologies, though. The recent city survey differed in its approach, using “targeted sampling” that excluded some large complexes.
Kingston’s ETPA initially covered 64 buildings and 1,200 apartments; exemptions and rehab projects have cut that to fewer than 1,000 units, under 20 percent of the city’s rentals.
Council members can adjust which buildings qualify — for instance, covering only those with 22-plus units — but can’t expand eligibility beyond ETPA’s pre-1974, six-unit minimum. A compromise deal with that unit threshold in mind is on the table, but has not been pursued.
Council members and tenant advocates slammed the mayor’s veto — which can be overruled with a two-thirds majority — while the director of a landlord group supported the move.
— Holden Walter-Warner
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