KINGSTON – The Hudson Valley Property Owners Association has filed an appeal to the Appellate Division over the Supreme Court decision of March 21 that validated the City of Kingston’s vacancy study and the city’s Rent Guideline Board’s ability to adjust rents lower.
Property owners’ association Executive Director Richard Lanzarone said the city “has chosen to demonize the 29 owners of the 52 buildings in Kingston as ‘profiteers’ who are ‘rent gouging.”
He said in reality, “in the 910 apartments in the 52 buildings subject to rent control in Kingston, 63 percent of the one bedroom, 74 percent of the two bedroom, and 86 percent of the three bedrooms in these private buildings have lower rents than the current renewals of the Kingston Housing Authority, ie, Section 8 market rents.”
Lanzarone said that “not only calls into serious question the premise for ordering a 15 percent across the board rent reduction, but also the premise behind the declaration of an emergency and the imposition of ETPA in Kingston.”
