Kingston Approves 15% Rent Cut, New York’s First Rollback

The rollback comes about four months after Kingston, a Hudson Valley city about halfway between NYC and Albany, became the only municipality north of NYC’s northern suburbs to embrace rent stabilization, which was permitted by a state rent law in 2019.

Tenants, led by an activist non-profit group calling itself For the Many, have been turning out in force at public meetings since rent stabilization was adopted in July. The tenants demanded rent rollbacks as steep as 30%, half of what they were granted by the rent board this week.