The city of Kingston is looking to turn its largest housing complex into workforce housing. It’s a move Mayor Steve Noble says would protect renters amid a housing crisis.

But the apartments' tenant union is asking questions about what sort of protections they’ll have.

Teresa Greene has lived at the Stony Run at the Stockade Apartments since 2008.

“I really liked the location," said Greene. "You know that it was close to just about everything.”

She’s now a member of the board for the complex’s tenant union.

The new initiative by the city, which would convert the apartments from market rate to income-controlled workforce housing, left her concerned when the tenants weren’t informed about conversations between the city and the apartments' property owners.

“My biggest concern was ETPA,” Greene said. The city passed the emergency tenant protection act, or ETPA, back in July 2022 to stabilize skyrocketing rent prices amid a housing crisis.

Greene says some tenants were concerned that changing the apartments from market rate to workforce housing would do away with ETPA protections. These questions led tenants to seek a meeting with Noble.

He says ETPA won’t be going anywhere in the short term.

“The first line of defense is ETPA. The second line of defense is being able to make sure that folks coming in are not making more than 120% AMI. But if at some point, if it goes away, this facility will also then not be able to have their rent set above 120 percent,” Noble said.

Stony Run would be available for renters making up to 120% of Kingston’s average median income of about $55,000. Noble says this allows local tenants to not get priced out by higher-income renters, while AKER, the property owners, will get access to federal housing and urban development loans.

“They will then be able to have access to those loans and then be able to complete the renovations and be able to then pay those loans back,” Noble said.

Greene said she felt like tenants’ voices were heard in their meeting with Noble.

“And so whether they're addressed, I guess it’s one of those, we got to wait and see,” Greene said.

She hopes that communication will be better as the mayor and AKER work toward a final agreement.

“We hope that we will move forward with a more cohesive relationship with the owners, that they would do a better job with their management company,” Noble said.

A survey last year found that Kingston has a 1.57% vacancy rate. New York state law allows any municipality with a rate under 5% to declare a housing emergency.