A new report from the office of County Comptroller March Gallagher this week paints a dire portrait of skyrocketing rates of homelessness and emergency housing costs borne by local taxpayers. The Ulster County Emergency Housing Snapshot concluded that the grim trend is likely to continue until new programs and initiatives enacted to increase housing stock have time to make an impact.

Emergency housing in Ulster County currently consists of two homeless shelters in Kingston operated by Family of Woodstock under a contract with the county and a network of motels around the region that take payment from the county Department of Social Services. The emergency housing network is primarily funded by three joint federal-state programs with Ulster County taxpayers picking up about half the total tab.

Gallagher’s report shows that tab has grown exponentially since 2020 when the pandemic turned a steady flow of new residents moving from downstate into a torrent, causing major disruption in the housing market. In between 2020 and 2024 the number of nights of emergency housing paid for DSS grew 149 percent from 58,781 to 129,170. During the same period nightly reimbursement rates for motel stays rose from $73.65 in 2020 to $102.86 last year, driven by inflation. Overall, Ulster County’s emergency housing costs rose 248 percent from $3.8 million in 2020 to $13.3 million in 2024.

The financial numbers reflect a surging homeless population which increasingly includes people who are employed and have never been homeless before. An annual “Point in Time” survey sponsored by the federal agency for Housing and Urban Development tracks homeless populations by conducting a nationwide canvass on a single night in January. The PIT survey showed an 88 percent increase in homeless adults and a 63 percent increase in homeless children in Ulster County between 2014 and 2024.

Gallagher’s report attributes the rise in homelessness to a combination of factors, including lagging development of new housing, a surge of new residents into the area since the pandemic and the explosion of short-term rentals to serve the county’s expanding tourism sector. Other factors identified in the report include changeovers in ownership of several large apartment complexes, leading to major rent increases, and the closure of three Kingston boarding houses that previously accommodated about 150 of the county’s most vulnerable residents, including those with mental health and substance abuse issues.

The report pointed to several initiatives undertaken by the county in recent years to reduce homelessness. They include the creation of a $15 million housing action fund, a program to encourage the creation of affordable “accessory dwelling units” by homeowners and the passage of a 2023 law that made it easier to commit county funds towards housing projects and programs. In the conclusion to the report, Gallagher said those and other efforts to reduce homelessness would likely have an impact but would take time to come to fruition.

“Due to a variety of factors, Ulster County is experiencing a housing crisis with limited inventory available for permanent housing and a substantial increase in homeless individuals and families,” the report concludes. “The county has undertaken a number of initiatives to address this growing need but it will take time for these programs and projects to have impact on the overall availability of permanent housing in Ulster County.”