NEWBURGH – The Newburgh City Council voted unanimously Monday night to declare a housing emergency requiring the regulation of certain residential rents in the city.
Following the vote, residents in the audience burst into applause.
Councilwoman Giselle Martinez noted Newburgh is now the third municipality in the Hudson Valley – the Village of Nyack and City of Kingston – to approve the move.
“The vacancy study just showed what we already knew, what we already felt, there is a housing crisis and although this isn’t the only solution, there are multiple moving pieces that we are going to continue working on,” she said.
The next step in the process is for the city to recommend nine people to serve on a rent guidelines committee with the state making the final determination.
* An earlier version of the story indicated Rockland County previously declared a housing emergency when it was the Village of Nyack in Rockland County that made the declaration.
