An Uptown Kingston property owner is pushing back against the city’s effort to remove a small encampment on his land that he said has provided shelter to a homeless woman through three winters. The dispute comes amid the city’s ongoing effort to address quality-of-life issues along the Midtown Linear Park which abuts the property.

“There are plenty of things in Kingston that are challenging our community, especially the junkies and everything like that,” said Tom Pfeffer, who lives on a nine acre parcel off of Albany Avenue near Kingston Plaza. “But I think anyone would be hard-pressed to say if there’s a private property owner that allowed a homeless woman to set up a tent and camp on it, that there’s a problem with that.”

For the past three years, Pfeffer has offered use of a spot at the edge of his property to Mary, a homeless woman who ekes out a living busking on Uptown street corners, without incident. The issue with the city building department began back on Feb. 9 when it issued Pfeffer a violation notice and order to remedy. The notice said that city inspectors had observed “trash, junk, tents, couch, chairs, bicycle parts and drug paraphernalia” at the site, as well as dead rodents. The notice said conditions at the campsite violated sections of the city code which require property owners to maintain exteriors in a “clean, safe and sanitary” condition and kept free of rodent infestation.

Pfeffer said the violation notice appeared to have been “crafted” with the intention of getting rid of the camp, regardless of its condition. Pfeffer said he doesn’t believe city inspectors could even have observed the campsite without illegally trespassing on his property. Pfeffer added that he had never observed any of the conditions cited in the violation.

After receiving the notice, Pfeffer made an appointment to have an inspector come back to the property to look at the campsite with him and his friend and attorney Bob Krause and clarify what exactly the violations were. The inspector cancelled the visit, citing rainy weather. Krause said the next interaction with the building department came on April 24 when Pfeffer received an invoice for $250 to cover a “failed inspection fee.”

Krause, a semi-retired trial attorney who’s taking on the case pro bono, said he believes the building department cut corners in issuing the violations. Krause said, for example, that it’s unclear whether the failed inspection fee was related to the Feb. 9 violation or some new issue that his client had never been apprised of. Krause added that Pfeffer had still not received any kind of clarification on what exactly he was expected to do to remediate the issue.

“He has not seen anything that says that he cannot [maintain a campsite on his property],” nor has he been presented by them with something specific that says ‘that is the problem,” said Krause. “So whether they’re trying to roundabout this, I don’t know.”

Meanwhile, Pfeffer said he wonders if the fine isn’t part of a larger crackdown on the unsheltered homeless as the city contends with a housing affordability crisis and persistent complaints about drug activity and other quality-of-life issues in the Midtown Linear Park and surrounding areas. The swampy bottomlands along the Esopus Creek in Uptown Kingston have long been a haven for small homeless encampments. In 2019, a larger encampment by the traffic circle in the Town of Ulster was cleared by police after one resident was murdered there and another accidentally drowned in the creek. Last year, nonprofit Kingston Midtown Rising fenced off an area behind 708 Broadway long used as a gathering place by the homeless and addicts.

Pfeffer said that he’s aware of at least two tents set up on nearby property owned by Kingston Plaza owner and city police commissioner Brad Jordan.

“The Jordan family has two tents right on the other side of Colonel Chandler Drive,” said Pfeffer. “Is the building department going to go after them? Are they going after all of the people who are struggling and trying to find a place to live?”

But Mayor Steve Noble said there was no crackdown on the unsheltered homeless. Instead, Noble said, the cases like Pfeffer’s are handled on an individual basis, usually in response to complaints. Noble said state housing law did not allow for permanent encampments like the one Pfeffer’s property. Noble said building department officials had sought to work with Pfeffer, suggesting that if wanted to provide shelter there, he should consider building a “tiny home” or other kind of accessory dwelling unit there. Noble added that the Department of Social Services and the city’s Mobile Mental Health Team had offered assistance to help Mary find other accommodations.

“When we have complaints, we have to deal with them,” said Noble. “We just have to take it on a case-by-case basis and try to provide services and encourage people that there are safer places to stay and help connect them with all of the supportive housing services that are available.”