FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 22, 2025
Mayor Noble Statement Regarding the Common Council’s ETPA Resolution:
I have returned Resolution 202 of 2025 with a veto. I feel strongly that Resolution 202 and its findings fall short of the requirements for declaring an ETPA-related housing emergency for all housing classes.
In vetoing this legislation, I want to make clear that I strongly support continuing Kingston’s Housing Emergency for properties with more than 22 units. The Office of Housing Initiative’s vacancy study and testimony make clear that a housing emergency still exists for larger buildings.
While I fully support the Common Council’s ability to make their own legislative findings, the resolution passed on Wednesday night misconstrues aspects of the 2025 vacancy study and contains several factual errors. Importantly, this includes a misstatement about the study calculating a citywide vacancy rate and a misunderstanding of the role of the consultant hired by the Office of Housing Initiatives.
The resolution also asserts that vacancy survey responses were intentionally inaccurate. Because we know that property owners have a vested interest in thwarting data collection, the Office of Housing Initiatives improved upon prior surveys by requesting vacancy data “as of” a specific date that was not communicated to anyone in advance of the survey.
If the Council believes that warehousing occurred, the resolution must contain sufficient facts to support that determination, in light of the 2025 survey methodology. These and other serious concerns about the resolution were communicated to the Common Council by the Office of Housing Initiatives but remained in the approved legislation.
As passed, the resolution invites legal challenges. Just as we did in 2022, the City stands ready to vigorously defend the rights of tenants. Factual accuracy is essential to that effort, particularly considering the serious and far-reaching consequences for tenants in Kingston and across New York State.
I will always protect and defend the rights of our tenants. I am proud that the City of Kingston was the first upstate municipality to opt into ETPA in 2022 and that we were able to defend this action up to New York’s highest court. We were also one of the first to adopt Good Cause Eviction and continue to use every available tool to support and encourage affordable housing. Our approach to rent stabilization in 2025 must advance, not undermine our significant progress.
I believe the Common Council must swiftly correct the errors in this resolution and include a full and serious consideration of the resolution submitted by the Office of Housing Initiatives, which contained well-documented findings and a path forward that would still include a large number of Kingston tenants.