A Stony (Run) reception as Kingston mayor’s deal fails by a single vote

A workforce housing plan hashed out between the Kingston mayor Steve Noble and Aker Companies, owner of the 267-unit Stony Run apartment complex, went over like a lead balloon at the Kingston Common Council meeting on March 7.

The mayor’s plan, already approved by the Laws and Rules Committee, would have converted all units in the housing complex from market rate into workforce housing. It failed by a single vote. 

Affordable housing is commonly understood to be a rental rate or mortgage which eats up no more than a third of one’s income. Using United States Census data, the AMI for a Kingston resident would be a maximum of $1618 a month to be considered affordable.

That is a lower-middle-class definition of affordable. For many Kingston residents, $1618 a month would account for much more than a third of their income. 

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Several speakers emphasized that they were making their own decisions independently of coaching from For the Many, an activist group engaged for the last couple of years in pitched battles throughout the Hudson Valley wherever progressive housing policies and the hearts and minds of the public intersect.

“It’s not unusual [that] tenants wanted to make their self-autonomy clear to the common council before they voted,” noted Aaron Narraph Fernando, communications lead of For the Many. “The tenants’ union makes decisions separately from us. For the Many only advises and provides support as requested by tenants.”