Recent News & Events
Emergency Housing: The Situation Today
When our residents lose their homes or experience homelessness, they can turn to the County Department of Social Services, which places them in emergency housing until a permanent solution can be found. Like other counties across the state, most of these placements are in motels or hotels because of an insufficient number of shelters to meet demand. The costs of these stays are shared by the County and the State.
Because of the current housing crisis, both the number of people in need of emergency housing and the duration of their stay have increased significantly. As of December 2023, the number of individuals placed by the Department of Social Services was 428. In 2023, the average time spent by unhoused families in emergency housing due to a lack of permanent solutions had exceeded 2 years, a significant increase in length from prior years. For a rural county like Ulster County, this is especially challenging because we do not have as many local motel options as they might, for instance, in neighboring Orange County.
The housing crisis requires new approaches, and we have launched major initiatives for both emergency and permanent housing to address the need, including:
- Implementing a new family placement program at the Kingston Motel
- Creating a new special Housing and Homelessness Unit with field staff to support those in emergency housing
- Establishing a Housing Action Fund to spur development of green, affordable housing and help bring supply into line with demand
- Expanding assistance to municipalities to regulate short-term rentals and adopt housing-friendly policies
Emergency Family Housing Initiative Serving 40 Families at Remodeled Kingston Motel (Formerly the Rodeway Inn)
The summer saw a large spike in unhoused families, including many from the Kingston City School District, and the lack of emergency housing options meant that families were being placed outside of the district and even out of the county. Concerned about the disruption to children's and families' lives once school started, the County Executive worked over the summer to negotiate numerous improvements at motel owners' expense at the former Rodeway Inn, now the Kingston Motel, with the goal of dedicating a large portion of rooms to families. Rooms were remodeled and a playground set was added to the grounds, among other changes. The motel also made improvements to the wastewater system to bring the system into compliance with state regulations.
Beyond securing physical improvements to the site, County Executive Metzger also worked with County departments to bring services on-site for the first time, including daily office hours by Social Services staff, routine patrols by the Sheriff's Office, and UCAT bus service.
Today, the initiative serves 40 families (125 people in total), providing stable emergency housing while keeping many children within their school district and avoiding long bus rides.
Coming in 2024: A New Special Housing and Homeless Unit
During her first year in office, County Executive Metzger and her team have identified gaps and needs in the County's emergency housing services, and in her 2024 Executive Budget, proposed a new special unit to address them. Approved by the Legislature in the final budget, the new unit will be led by a Special Assistant to the Commissioner, and will include a Housing Specialist and Emergency Housing Resource Coordinator to provide individualized support for unhoused residents, find the most appropriate emergency housing locations, and help them secure long-term housing in coordination with nonprofit partners.
The Resource Coordinator will work primarily in the field at different emergency housing locations throughout the County, meeting people where they are and addressing needs on-site. The goal is to provide proactive, nimble, and personalized assistance to residents experiencing housing insecurity and homelessness, including residents who are chronically homeless.
We will be posting the new positions soon and look forward to standing up the new unit in early 2024.
Housing Action Fund Moves Forward
In 2023, County Executive Metzger worked with the Legislature to create a $15 million Housing Action Fund to support equitable and sustainable community development through the construction, development, revitalization, and preservation of affordable, workforce, and supportive housing. Projects supported by the fund must be aligned with the County's climate goals and be energy-efficient, all-electric, and solar-ready. The Housing Policy and Oversight Committee that oversees the fund has now been fully appointed by the County Executive and Legislature, and held its first meeting in November. The committee will begin accepting grant applications in Spring 2024.
In related news, on Dec. 21 the County Legislature approved an increase to the County’s occupancy tax on hotel, motel, and short-term rental stays from 2% to 4%, which will provide additional resources both to the Housing Action Fund and to public transportation as proposed by the County Executive earlier this year. Half of the revenue from the occupancy tax, or an anticipated $3 million, will be split between housing and transportation in the adopted budget. The County Executive is working with Legislator Abe Uchitelle on a proposed policy for the new Legislative session that would make this an annual allocation beyond 2024.
Learn more about the Housing Action Fund and how it works at Participate Ulster.
Golden Hill Development Awarded with $15 Million Homeless Housing Grant from New York State
We are thrilled to share that the Golden Hill affordable and supportive housing development received a $15 million Homeless Housing Assistance Program grant–the largest ever from New York State–bringing this much-needed project closer to construction!
The project will be energy-efficient and all-electric in design, with a 600kW rooftop solar array. When completed, this community development initiative will provide:
- 164 units of affordable housing, with 48 units dedicated to supportive housing for frail elderly individuals and domestic violence survivors.
- Community daycare, six playgrounds designed for a variety of ages, a public transit stop, and a trail connection to the Empire State Trail.
11 Municipalities Join Housing Smart Communities Program
Local governments are essential partners in addressing the housing crisis, with "home rule" authority to decide what gets built where, as well as decisions about local housing regulations. To support and encourage local governments to preserve and expand housing that residents can afford, the Ulster County Planning Department created Housing Smart Communities, a certification and capacity-building program that provides guidance, technical support, and incentives for municipalities.
The program identifies a number of housing smart actions that communities can take, from zoning reform to short-term rental regulation to expediting the permitting process. Since the launch of the program last year, 11 municipalities have joined.
Learn more and ask your local elected officials to join today!
Updates on Short-Term Rentals Operating in Ulster County
There are a number of contributors to the current housing crisis, one of which is the growth of the short-term rental market in Ulster County, which has reduced the availability of long-term rentals and permanent homes affordable to first-time home buyers. Ulster County, through a contract with the vendor Granicus, tracks data on short-term rentals for taxation purposes and also shares this data with local governments who request it.
As part of the County Executive's 2024 budget initiatives, local governments participating in the County's Housing Smart Program will gain new access to short-term rental data to help with local enforcement of short-term rental regulations. These municipalities will receive access to a dashboard to track the activity of all STRs (registered and non-registered) in real-time, helping communities more effectively enforce their STR regulations.
Municipalities will also receive discounts for additional tools if they choose to purchase them, which they can use to further support enforcement of their STR regulations (e.g., Mobile Permitting and 24/7 Hotline Support, etc).
We believe it is important to make this data accessible so that you can have an understanding of the impact of short-term rentals on the housing stock in your community.
You can visit Participate Ulster to view the data by community.
Based on data collected in 2023, there are approximately 2,351 short-term rentals, which comprise approximately three percent of all housing. (We estimate a 10 percent margin of error in the number of estimated units.)
For individual communities, STRs can account for anywhere from one percent to 10 percent of the housing stock. With the Housing Smart Communities Initiative, the County suggests limiting the total number of short-term rentals to one or two percent of the community’s total housing stock to strike a balance between protecting affordable housing for residents while supporting the local tourism economy.
Plus One Home Program Receives Over 70 Applications
In Fall 2023, the County partnered with RUPCO and the City of Kingston to launch the Plus One Home Program to assist Ulster County low-moderate income property owners with grants of up to $125,000 to construct or rehab code-compliant Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). The program received over 70 applications and 14 households have been initially awarded to receive grants, based on high application scores and household needs.
In conjunction with the grant program, Ulster County and the City of Kingston held the “Say Yes to ADUs!” Accessory Dwelling Design Competition. After receiving almost 30 design proposals, an evaluation committee composed of local design professionals selected the DEMO Architecture team’s design as the winner, and Plus One by Andrade Architecture as the runner-up. The winning design has been awarded $25,000 to produce permit-ready construction documents, which Ulster County homeowners can use for free to obtain building permits to construct their ADU.
Learn more and see all the ADU design proposals.
Ulster County Visits the White House
County Executive Metzger and Chair of the Legislature Tracey Bartels were among 50 State and local elected officials and community and union leaders from across New York who were invited to the White House in December to meet with Biden Administration officials on a range of issues, including federal infrastructure investments, historic levels of funding to address climate change, programs to support Veterans, and more.
The County Executive spoke about the County's work to address the climate crisis and the enormous value of the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, championed by the Biden Administration and passed by Congress.
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