Valerie, Christina and Janyce are three Kingston residents with stories familiar in these days of the Mid-Hudson Valley housing crisis. Valerie lost her housing during the pandemic after her stepfather’s landlord died and his children sold the house. Christina was pushed out of housing, lost her job and was blindsided by the rental market. Janyce was living with a sister who lost her apartment due to mental health issues.

Each of them — Kingston Wire is withholding their last names for privacy reasons — were brought to the same place along with their families, the Kingston Motel in the Town of Ulster. They were given one cramped room, two beds, a microwave and a mini fridge with the hopes of rebuilding their lives. But instead of shelter, what they found when they got there is, they say, unlivable.

This is the story of three of the 52 families currently residing in the Kingston Motel. Originally, the motel was a hotel, one of several in the Town of Ulster. In 2015, the franchise was taken over by the Rodeway Inn. It became emergency housing two years ago, becoming, in effect, a homeless shelter.

“You can’t drink the water,” said Janyce, who lives at the motel with her husband and three children. “You have to bring a bottle to the office where they had the water fountain, but I don't think it's any different from the water in a room. It doesn't taste any different. There’s roaches, bed bugs, mold, the tiles are all coming off the floor.”

County spokeswoman Amberly Jane Campbell told Kingston Wire that the motel's water is potable.

Valerie works two jobs to keep up with expenses and find stable housing. Since moving in, she was able to get a car and develop friendly relationships with others in the motel, who, she said “try to take care of each other like neighbors.”

She tries to keep her place “clean and organized,” enforcing a chore chart just like when she and her children lived in a house, But she told Kingston Wire that dignity and normalcy has proven challenging due to the conditions of the motel.

The bathroom is constantly clogged, and she said she heard the maintenance man arguing with the landlord because he wasn’t being paid. Water is frequently shut off for hours at a time without warning, making tasks like washing dishes and showering impossible. She has to share two broken beds with her four children.

“The water smells so bad that I don't even want to bathe my kids in it. I don't want to wash dishes in it. I don't want to use it at all,” Christina said. “It's me and four children. We have one room, two beds. The mattresses don't even fit the box springs, so you're lopsided the whole night.”

All three tenants had the same issue with the mini-fridges — it forces them to spend more money on food because of how little it can store, and sometimes they don’t even keep the food cold. The rooms do not have ventilation, causing black mold; they said the landlord painted over it, but it hasn’t resolved the problem. Janyce said that lights in her room turn off when neighbors use appliances, and she’s nervous that an electric fire that could happen “at any moment” due to damaged outlets.

Despite Valerie keeping her space clean, she has an “out of control” cockroach infestation, where she found hordes of pests in a corner of her room where no food was stored. The landlord said he’d spray the room, but she said she’s getting the roaches from her neighbor, who is getting it from a drain that connects to a tenant living in another part of the building.

“My son doesn't sleep at night. He sleeps in the daytime because he has anxiety over the roaches,” Valerie said. “This morning, I woke up to my 13-year-old killing a roach, she now has insomnia because of the roaches. They're [the landlord] not doing anything about it.”

They also described dangerous living conditions and constantly seeing police. Valerie said fights occur nightly, and Christina said town police are sometimes called as many as three times a day, accompanied by state troopers and county sheriff’s deputies.

Valerie called the situation a “free for all,” saying she’s witnessed widespread drug use, drug dealing, physical altercations, vandalism, and children being left unattended. More children live in the motel than adults, and they have only the surrounding street and playground to escape their rooms. They are often left unattended, beside a highway, where, an ex-boyfriend noted, they could be easily kidnapped.

“There are kids up there that are 14, that are smoking crack, that don't go to school,” she said. “I’ve witnessed these things with my own eyes. I’ve witnessed the hand-to-hand transactions.”

Valerie said the motel staff installed a plexiglass wall in the office to protect themselves; she believes they don’t enforce rules out of fear. Instead, the tenants are left to deal with these issues themselves.

“When I first got here and I was complaining about things, they told me if I had any issues, I needed to call the police. And I was like, wow, that's why the police are here so much, because you guys don't address anything,” Christina said.

In May, a woman was charged with a felony after a domestic violence incident, which allegedly included an attack on a child, at the motel.

According to state police, Brittany C. Santaliz, 33, of Kingston, on May 23 “unlawfully entered a motel room and physically assaulted a 12-year-old child, striking the victim multiple times in the face and causing injury.” She was charged with felony burglary and Class A misdemeanor assault and child violence charges. She was released pending a future court appearance.

For Christina, keeping her four young children inside the room is challenging, especially for her 9-year-old who has autism. But she doesn’t feel safe letting them play outside, where she sees older kids fighting and cursing, and hearing her neighbors have mental breakdowns.

Janyce said that drug users, some of whom don’t live in the motel, will come looking for people and knock on the wrong doors, including her own. She also saw someone overdose on the staircase near her room.

“That’s scary, because we don't know them, and they're intoxicated on drugs. And God forbid they try to force their way in the room,” Janyce said. “If we’re sitting outside, and someone we don’t even know is overdosing, I don’t want my kids seeing that. It’s bad enough that when they get older, all their childhood they’re going to remember is we lived in a hotel room.”

Valerie said these things happen at all hours of the night. One morning, before going to work, she saw two police cars, a state trooper, and the fire department outside of the motel.

“They’re [social services] not coming to do room inspections, and the motels not doing room inspections,” she said. “These families are forgotten. They're put up there and they're forgotten. And that's what it feels like.”

Kingston Wire has reached out for comment to the Kingston Motel’s owner, Mukash Patel, but we have not as of noontime Monday received a response.

Deputy County Executive James Amenta told Kingston Wire that county government takes the health, safety, and dignity of those in emergency housing “very seriously” and are continually in contact with clients living in emergency housing placements and the motels. Clients are encouraged to reach out to their caseworkers and, if necessary, elevate their concern to the director of housing and homelessness. According to Amenta, hotel and motel owners made an agreement with the county to provide are responsible for day-to-day operations and upkeep at their facilities. A certificate of occupancy (CO) ensuring compliance with building and safety requirements and an operating permit ensuring compliance from the Ulster County Department of Health “are required to be in full force," he said.

Coming soon: Part 2, with more commentary by Ulster County officials and others close to the matter.