The city of Kingston just made history as the first municipality north of Rockland County to pass rent protection measures into law amid what some are calling a housing crisis in the city.

Karen Downing has been a resident of Dutch Village apartments in Kingston for 12 years.

She loves living here but she says her landlord is treating her unfairly.

"There’s a lot of tenants here 14, 15 of us were just at the end of our rope we didn’t know what to do," said Downing.

She says just a few weeks ago she received this lease agreement dated for October of 2021 raising her rent and threatening to charge her $500 if she doesn't sign it.

"The last thing I've gotten from the office was if you don’t sign it, they’re gonna put me in legal and you’ll be evicted in 30 days," said Downing.

On Tuesday, she spoke out at the common council’s public hearing on the Emergency Tenant Protection Act.

"If I sign it, it’s going to go to $1260, the cable is included and then in two months when it’s up in a couple of months in October, I’m gonna get another lease and then it would go up another $100," she said.

The common council passed the ETPA on Thursday night, and Mayor Steve Noble signed it into law on Friday.

This allows the city to put rent stabilization measures into place.

The law applies to buildings constructed before 1974 with six or more units.

Kingston will also establish a rent guidelines board that will meet annually to set guidelines for rent changes in the city.

Ward 2 Alderman Carl Frankel says he’s proud to have voted for the legislation.

"We have a housing crisis and rents are going up and there are a lot of very unhappy people In Kingston," said Frankel.

Earlier this year a city study found Kingston has a net vacancy rate of 1.57%, meaning there's a severe housing shortage going on.

"I think this has to be one piece in a much larger puzzle," said Frankel. "It does not apply to a lot of the housing stock so I think for those people in there who are being badly treated, it will help them quite significantly."

He points to other policies in Kingston like "Good Cause Eviction," rezoning and a tiny homes program as other solutions that will help fix the city’s housing crisis.

Downing says the new law gives her some hope.

"As long as they passed the bill then we have some backup. We can bring this to our landlords and say. ‘look, here’s the bill you can’t do this to us,’" said Downing.

Karen’s complex Dutch Village did not immediately return a request for a comment.