FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 19, 2021
City of Kingston
Awards Family of Woodstock for Tiny Home Community Proposal
KINGSTON, NY – Mayor Steven T. Noble is
pleased to announce that the City
of Kingston has formally awarded Family of Woodstock to facilitate the
construction and management of a pilot tiny home community.
On March 4,
2021, the City of Kingston issued an RFP for qualified independent firms to
provide construction, case management, and property management services for a
tiny home project. The proposal review committee voted to award the contract to
Family
of Woodstock, which has been serving the community with
crisis intervention and support since 1970. This pilot program will launch with
$200,000 in allotted funds from the Anti-Displacement Learning
Network grant to build homes for families who are
facing eviction or are at high risk of displacement from the Midtown
neighborhood, and is modeled after the “A Tiny Home for Good” project in
Syracuse, New York.
Designated
for single-parent households, the proposal includes three 400-700 square foot
two-bedroom homes with a kitchen and bathroom. Family of Woodstock, working
with Gen Z Homes, will oversee construction of the community as well as case
management services for future residents. Family of Woodstock is working to
identify potential locations on a parcel or parcels of city-owned land in the
Midtown area.
“We are
thrilled to partner with Family of Woodstock to make a tiny home community a
reality. These three homes will have a huge impact on three families almost
immediately,” said Mayor Noble. “We also acknowledge that the need for
affordable housing is great among all populations. The ADLN project team is
actively working on another proposal targeting single adults at high risk of
displacement. The tiny home project is just one piece of my ambitious,
multi-faceted housing agenda for Kingston, which also includes permitting
accessory dwelling units, drafting and implementing a form based code, and
pilot projects like this one.”
“Family is
excited to work with the City to test the tiny homes model as a vehicle for
helping single head-of-household families develop the employment skills and
address other critical needs to become self-sufficient after two years of
supported living,” said Family of Woodstock Executive Director Michael Berg.
“I’m very
excited that, together with the Anti-Displacement Learning Network and Family
of Woodstock, we are advancing a pilot project that will provide safe,
comfortable, and permanent homes for single-parent households facing
considerable hardship,” said City of Kingston Director of Housing Initiatives
Kevin Corté. “No child in Kingston should have to grow up in subpar housing and
no parent should have to make the choice between affordability and safe and
healthy living conditions. Providing alternative housing options for low-income
families at high risk of displacement is incredibly important in the effort to
stabilize our community in the face of a severe housing crisis.”
“The creation of a tiny home pilot program
is a great step to address Kingston’s housing crisis, and I look forward to
working with Family of Woodstock on the creation of the program,” said Council
President Andrea Shaut. “The ADLN team remains committed to finding other solutions
to help even more of the community, because we recognize that creating this
program is the beginning, not the ending, of what needs to be done to best
serve and protect all community members.”
In 2019, Enterprise
Community Partners, a national non-profit whose
mission is to address America’s affordable housing crisis, selected
the City of Kingston and nine other New York State
municipalities for participation in a 10-month Anti-Displacement Learning
Network (ADLN) program. Each municipality was asked to create an ADLN Volunteer
Team to examine existing conditions, structures, and programs in their communities.
The team were also charged with identifying one or more new strategies that
could be implemented to prevent displacement of residents at risk of eviction
and/or homelessness.
Throughout 2020, the ADLN
Volunteer Team convened regularly with Enterprise staff, housing experts, and
the other teams from across the State for a series of workshops designed to
guide strategy identification. Among the strategies that members of the
volunteer team have pinpointed is the creation of tiny homes that will provide
safe, permanent housing for single-parent households at high risk of
displacement.
More information can be found at: https://engagekingston.com/anti-displacement-strategies