Dear Editor:

I would like to assuage Nan Potter’s fears ("LETTER: Rent control in Kingston could do more harm than good," Jan. 30, 2020) that rent control does not work. Rent control does work; it has worked for 46 years in New York City. In fact, it works so well that the Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974 was extended to the rest of the state last year as part of a package of housing legislation designed to protect the rights of tenants.

And to Realtor Andi Turco-Levin ("LETTER: Rent control in Kingston won't have desired effect," Feb. 5, 2020"): Realtors were not consulted in the vacancy study because it’s not a study about Realtors’ feelings about rent control. If Realtors want to conduct a study on their feelings about rent control, they are free to do so and fund it themselves. But I can save you some time: You don’t like it, and it’s not because rent control affects property taxes (it doesn’t) or because landlords will disinvest in their properties if they’re not allowed to gouge their tenants (landlords neglect their properties anyway). Realtors don’t like rent control because it diminishes their bottom line.

Rents in Ulster County have increased at an astonishing rate, and displaced residents are abandoning these parts for points north (Albany, Greene County) or south (Virginia, North Carolina, Florida). They are silent because they are gone.

I call on our local officials: Don’t replace our community members with newer, shinier, wealthier people. Don’t contribute to displacement and homelessness (yes, homelessness has been increasing right along with rents). Insist that we are better than this.

Betsy Kraat
Hunter, N.Y.

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Dear Editor:

I’m a tenant in an apartment on St. James Street in Kingston, in a building where all of my neighbors are being forced out of their homes by extreme rent increases.

The majority of these tenants have lived here for 10-plus years, some as long as 20. The majority of the tenants are low- and fixed-income folks, senior citizens, and people with disabilities.

The building was sold in January after the old landlord advertised that a new landlord potentially could earn $125,000 more per year by raising our rents. The new landlord is doing just that. Tenants have received staggering rent increases. For some, the increase is 51 percent. Two tenants have already been displaced. This is outrageous.

These rent increases are sudden and extremely steep. Our new landlord is forcing low-income, hard-working people and senior citizens out on the street in the name of a quick profit, and Kingston has no laws to protect us. We are watching in horror as developers (like Charles Blaichman) from other cities come to Kingston to buy property and displace us, all to make money through Airbnb and luxury apartments that this city’s tenants cannot afford.

The renters in Kingston make up more than 30 percent of the population. The Emergency Tenant Protection Act being presented on Feb. 19 at Kingston City Hall that could be an important first step to ensuring a housed, healthy city. We certainly should not be forced out of our homes so that one person can make a profit.

Kyra Nolte
Kingston, N.Y.

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Dear Editor,

I'm an aide who has seen how tenants have been moving out of the apartment complex where I care for a senior lady due to high rent increases.

Some of these tenants in her building are on fixed incomes or just making enough to survive.

Some of these rent increases run in various amounts, depending on the square footage of one's apartment. Some are $300 increases; some are as high as $500. The reasoning behind the increases is to keep up with current "market value" or renovations be bring the apartments up to date.

We need some kind of rent control before we have a bigger issue of homelessness in our city.

It's time for our city officials to see that these out-of-control rents are going to cause a bigger problem if something isn't done now.

Alice Hasbrouck
Bloomington, N.Y.

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Dear Editor:

I support the immediate adoption of the full ETPA (Emergency Tenant Protection Act) in Kingston. I am a resident of Ulster County, and want to remain a resident of this county and the city of Kingston. We are looking for your support in protecting us and our families and seniors citizen of our community.

I have some faith in this organization to stand up for us, and not let someone come in and destroy our community. This is all myself and my family know. We are forced out of our homes and community and are totally helpless. It's time for us to take back our community, and not let some greedy investors destroy our community.

I have college and high school kids who are attending school right in our community, and an 18-year-old son who is serving our country, only to come home in a few months, maybe, with nowhere to call home.

Wuyatta Reece,
Kingston, N.Y.

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Dear Editor:

I have been living in the Stony Run apartment complex in Kingston for more than 15 years. The initial lease included heating, hot water and water.

My rent has been increased every year by more than the rate of inflation, while my salary has stayed the same for the last 10 years.

My lease will expire in May 2020, and Stony Run's new owner, E&M Management, calls me twice a week and asks me to sign new lease with a rent increase of more than 10 percent. Also, they want to start charge for all the extras.

They are harassing me to sign a new lease. We cannot afford to pay the high rent. The complex is old, and the apartments are in bad shape. My wife and myself are thinking to move to the South because we cannot afford to live in Kingston.

We need local officials to protect ordinary citizens.

Carl Campu
Kingston, N.Y.

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Dear Editor:

Many long-term tenants in a building on St. James Street in Kingston, myself included, are being forced out by huge rent hikes.

Most of us are lower-income people who have low-paying jobs (at or near minimum wage) and/or Social Security as income.

My new landlord, an investor who lives in New York City, has advised my next-door neighbor and me that out rents will be raised by 51 percent, effective May 1. We were only just notified by phone in mid-January.

The landlord's justification is that the rents have to be raised to "market" levels. I understand the economics of it, but landlords should not be allowed to raise rents so suddenly and by such a ridiculous percentage, thereby forcing hard-working and fixed-income people out and into potential homelessness for the sake of an accelerated recoupment of their investment and turning a quick profit.

Perhaps I'm old-fashioned, but I think both landlords and tenants should care about their community and treat one another with mutual respect and consideration. (My former landlord agrees with this; he is a senior resident of Kingston who believes "we all have to live together," as he recently stated to me).

Obviously, the wealthy big-city investors don't care about us locals, just the money. Reasonable rent hike limits and tenant protections must become law as soon as possible.

James Campanella
Kingston, N.Y.

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Dear Editor:

Kingston needs to opt into the Emergency Tenant Protection Act. It will protect my friends, my neighbors and me — the community.

We have established lives here. We are Kingston.

When you put in the glossy new rail trails and clean up buildings, it should be for the people who already live here. We need to build up the lives of those who live here so that when others come to visit, they see the real Kingston.

People should not be forced out a community only for it to be filled back up with new residents and higher rents. It should be maintained as a place to grow and prosper.

That way, people will want to come and visit rather than take out homes.

Sasha Finlay
Kingston, N.Y.

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