Family of Woodstock is excited to bring tiny homes to the city of Kingston. These homes are 30x20 in size and will assist single-parent families who are experiencing housing insecurity.
But this recent announcement has been controversial for some.
“So, saying that we’re going to help single-parent families, but we’re not going to help single adults, to me, is a false choice because they both need housing," said Rashida Tyler, a housing activist and a member of the Anti-Displacement Learning Network (ADLN) Board.
Tyler has spent more than a year on this network, which received a $1 million grant from housing nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners. The goal was to have housing activists, experts and government work together to fight the housing crisis.
Tyler says members of the ADLN were in agreement with a $200,000 proposal for tiny homes. “The focus really was on people who needed to be triaged in terms of housing," Tyler said.
What You Need To Know
- Kingston's Anti-Displacement Learning Network created a plan to combat the housing crisis with a $1 million grant they received from the nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners
- $200,000 of that was planned to be used to build tiny homes for the city's homeless
- But now that these homes will be for single-parent families, activists say more must be done for a homeless population that is overlooked and underserved
According to the most recent data by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, homelessness in Ulster County is more than twice the state average and the highest in the Hudson Valley.
Tyler says single adults are the largest group experiencing housing insecurity in the city and the most underserved.
“All of the data out there suggests that is the highest needs population. Fifty-one percent of our homeless population are single adults," Tyler said.
Tyler adds that she is not opposed to housing for single parents, but that this proposal goes against what the network has been working toward for more than a year. Now, she says there’s an additional $200,000 of unused grant money that she’d like to see go toward single-adult housing in Midtown Kingston.
“Making sure that there’s space in Kingston for the poor and that as our city grows and develops, that we’re bringing everyone along with us," Tyler said.
The tiny homes proposal from Family of Woodstock has been accepted by the city's director of housing initiatives.
“This is a new space. It's clean, it's new, and it works," said Michael Berg, executive director of Family of Woodstock.
Berg says this project will combat gentrification and provide two-year transitional housing to residents who are getting priced out.
“We know that there’s a need for training, there’s a need for completing education, there’s a need for finding meaningful work that will allow people to stay," Berg said.