FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 9, 2021
City of Kingston
Awarded $1,000,000 Anti-displacement Grant
KINGSTON, NY – Mayor Steven T. Noble is
pleased to announce that the City of Kingston has been awarded a $1,000,000
grant from Enterprise Community Partners,
Inc. (Enterprise) to implement
targeted strategies designed to help prevent displacement of residents from
their homes and community.
The City of Kingston is one of 10
municipalities to receive $1 million funding from Enterprise
to implement strategies identified through
participation in the New
York State Anti-Displacement Learning Network (ADLN). Last year,
each municipality formed an ADLN Team, which includes local stakeholders,
elected officials and staff, who worked with Enterprise over nine months to
identify displacement triggers and design targeted approaches to address them.
City of Kingston team members include RUPCO VP Guy Kempe, Mayor Steve Noble,
Council President Andrea Shaut, Alderman Jeffrey Ventura Morell, City of
Kingston Director of Housing Initiatives Mike Gilliard, Real Kingston Tenants Union's Rashida Tyler, and Midtown Rising’s Executive Director Frank
Waters.
Enterprise
worked alongside the New York Attorney General’s Office as well as PolicyLink
and the Center for Community Progress
to design the Learning Network sessions and collaborate with jurisdiction teams
on developing their strategies. Enterprise will now continue working with the
City of Kingston to implement these high-impact strategies locally so that
community members at risk of displacement can remain in their homes.
Resident
displacement is a major cause of community destabilization across New York.
Displacement disproportionately harms low-income communities and people of
color, furthering racial inequity and causing increased and entrenched poverty,
economic immobility, and weakened cultural ties and support networks.
“Housing is a fundamental right for all
people. With the worsening pandemic, increased demand in our area, and rising
housing costs, we as a City need to do everything possible to make sure no one
loses their home,” said Mayor Noble. “I am so grateful for this grant from
Enterprise Community Partners that will allow us to implement smart strategies
to help ensure everyone in our community has a safe, stable place to live.”
Enterprise works
with partners nationwide to build opportunity. They bring together the
nationwide know-how, partners, policy leadership and investments to multiply
the impact of local affordable housing development. Over more than 35 years,
Enterprise has created nearly 585,000 homes, invested $43.6 billion and touched
millions of lives.
Founded in 2010, the Center
for Community Progress is the national leader for building strong,
equitable communities where vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties are
transformed into assets for neighbors and neighborhoods. Community Progress has
affected change in more than 48 states and seven countries through leadership
education, technical assistance, and collaborative systems, policy, and
practice reforms.
PolicyLink is a
national research and action institute advancing racial and economic equity by
Lifting Up What Works®.