\u00a0latest suit<\/a> it filed against the city over the ETPA on Wednesday, March 18.<\/p>\nThat suit asks the court to throw out the Kingston Common Council\u2019s January vote to continue rent stabilization for all tenants currently covered by the ETPA.<\/p>\n
\u201cRent stabilization is a tool to stabilize our neighborhoods and keep our residents safe,\u201d Shrestha said in a press release on Friday, April 10. \u201cWithout stable homes, families can\u2019t keep their kids in schools, stay near their families, get a job or be good at it, seek educational opportunities, participate in civic life, and so on. The reality is too many of my constituents are struggling to pay rent, which has doubled over the last few years, while wages have not kept pace.<\/p>\n
Shrestha blasted landlords\u2019 years-long effort to end rent stabilization and \u201cpreserve their ability to hike rents and kick people out of their homes at will.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must pass my bill, the REST Act, this year to give localities the power to preserve affordable housing,\u201d Shrestha said.<\/p>\n
Shrestha\u2019s office said that communities like Kingston currently can only opt into rent stabilization via \u201ccostly and legally vulnerable study.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2025 Kingston vacancy study, completed by the city\u2019s Office of Housing Initiatives, has drawn the ire of tenants and tenant rights advocates and some officials. They alleged manipulation by landlords, including the warehousing of apartments and the listing of occupied apartments as vacant to raise the vacancy rate.<\/p>\n
Shrestha\u2019s office said the REST ACT would update ETPA by allowing localities to opt in using publicly available data such as eviction rates, permitting municipalities to extend protections down to a minimum of four units, and extending protections only to buildings built within the last 15 years on a rolling basis. Rent stabilization covers only 20% of rental units in Kingston, her office added.<\/p>\n
Shrestha\u2019s office also said that Ulster County workers who rent a one-bedroom apartment are currently spending 54% of their income on rent. Her office noted that the average hourly wage for renters last year was $14.57, half of what\u2019s needed to rent a one-bedroom apartment without being rent burdened. Being rent-burdened is defined as spending more than 30% of gross income on rent and utilities.<\/p>\n
Xaver Kander, political director of the progressive group For the Many, said in the release, \u201cKingston has a housing emergency and everyone knows it. But we shouldn\u2019t have to bend over backwards to prove it in court when there are hundreds of families living in emergency hotel housing and families across the state are just one rent hike away from joining them. The legislature should move to pass the REST Act this session to empower municipalities to make rent affordable.<\/p>\n
Tenant organizer June Nemon added, \u201cThe best way for tenants to fight evictions and rent hikes is to get organized. Talk to your neighbors, start a tenants association, and join efforts to win policies that will improve your housing conditions. No matter what happens with the current lawsuit, rent-stabilized tenants in Kingston are due lower rents.<\/p>\n
Nemon urged ETPA tenants and their neighbors to file overcharge claims with the Division of Homes and Community Renewal. \u201cThat will put you on the strongest footing to protect your housing and keep it affordable,\u201d Nemon said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KINGSTON, N.Y. \u2014 Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha and tenants rights groups rallied on Thursday for the passage of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[77330,85,267,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,77331,4941],"class_list":{"0":"post-193782","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-etpa","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-new-york-state","15":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-state-news","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-sarahana-shrestha","19":"tag-ulster-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}