Michael Berg, the former executive director for the Family of Woodstock, wrote a letter this week criticizing the county’s handling of the Kingston Motel, where dozens of families are using as emergency housing, which he believes limited the Family’s ability to help. The letter also asserts that due to the lack of sufficient oversight at the motel, some families “sold” their rooms to drug dealers.

The Kingston Motel has been covered extensively by Kingston Wire after those placed in the shelter came to us with issues such as pest infestations, safety concerns and the uphill battle to achieve long-term housing. This resulted in a Town of Ulster investigation which confirmed the motel was violating several health and safety standards and an ongoing public debate.

One issue residents of the motel brought to our attention was the lack of sufficient resources, including from Family, which operated a lone office that many were either unaware of or unable to receive assistance from.

Berg’s letter, dated Oct. 20, said that he was “stunned” to learn that a staff of the Family was told by an unnamed county legislator who “has always been friendly to the agency” that the organization should address the damage being done to its reputation. Berg believed this must be related to their involvement with the Kingston Motel.

According to Berg, when the Kingston Motel was up for sale in 2023, prospective buyers approached Family to see if they would manage the facility after they purchased it. In 2003, Family managed the homeless shelter at the former King’s Inn on Broadway for a short period of time.

“We agreed, and developed a plan to run the motel in a manner that, to the greatest extent possible, would meet the state standards for homeless shelters,” Berg said. “When the county offered to move up to 50 homeless families, currently being housed around the region, to the motel, the current owner, probably realizing he would get a windfall, took the motel off the market.”

Berg said Family made the same offer to the county, offering to move its staff of the agency’s licensed homeless shelter for families, but, he wrote, “it seemed that the offer was not given serious consideration.” Instead, the county wanted to use a state grant to place a Family caseworker in the motel. Berg said he was not comfortable with having a lone staff member placed there due to safety concerns, but Family ended up establishing an office there.

Deputy County Executive James Amenta, speaking on behalf of the county, told Kingston Wire that he was “incredibly saddened to hear [Berg] has been advised that Family of Woodstock and his tenure need a reputation boost,” and that it is not the position of Metzger’s administration. However, Amenta said many of Berg’s claims in the letter were “inaccurate or uncontextualized.”

“The Kingston Motel was not available for purchase in early 2023. The ownership of that motel entered into a contract to sell the property around August of the preceding year. That sale contract ended up in litigation, which only ended this past January,” Amenta said. “Early 2023 was the height of that contract dispute and immediately precedes the initial filing of lawsuits. Any proposal made in that context would have had to be taken with significant caution.”

Berg had more to say in his letter than a disagreement over who got to run the Kingston Motel when it was made into an emergency housing facility. He said that the Family was “not able to provide as much help as I hoped,” due to families in the Kingston Motel not seeking the Family out and not being referred to the organization by the Department of Social Services the way Berg was told would happen.

He also said the Family’s office space in the motel was “inadequate,” without enough space for employees or privacy to allow families to seek assistance privately. According to Berg, some living in the motel feared retaliation from other residents. Additionally, Berg said other existing services, such as police and emergency response, became overwhelmed by the issues at the motel.

“What happened at the Kingston Motel was as a result of a lack of management. There was no one taking charge on a 24-hour basis to calm things before they blew up, or to ensure that families did not sell their rooms to drug dealers, as happened,” Berg said. “While we at Family wish we had accomplished more while we were providing services at the motel, Family should not be blamed for what happened, and continues to happen there.”

In one section of the letter, under a subheading of “What Went Wrong,” Berg offered his perspective on the Kingston Motel’s problems. “What happened at the Kingston Motel was as a result of a lack of management. There was no one taking charge on a 24-hour basis to calm things before they blew up, or to ensure that families did not sell their rooms to drug dealers, as happened.

“The only response became a police or emergency services intervention, and the existing services, without any planning or additional resources, became overwhelmed. (Town of Ulster officials have said responding to incidents at the motel is an onerous strain on town police and other first responders.) While we at Family wished we had accomplished more while we were providing services at the motel, Family should not be blamed for what happened, and continues to happen, there.”

Berg believes the larger problem is that many families living in the motel have little to no hope of ever moving into a permanent home due to the high cost of housing and lack of living-wage jobs. While Berg said “there is still much to be determined,” he believes that agreeing that if an individual or family head is working “at least close to full time” they should be able to afford a minimally safe residence, is a start.

“When people realize there is not a chance that they will to be able to escape homelessness, they lose hope,” Berg said. “They start to see their emergency living environment as home, and to chafe under the reality that they are being forced to follow other people's rules in the way they live. Many act out. Some must be evicted to protect the remaining residents. In all cases it is a failure of our society.”

Amenta said the county would be happy to go through anything mentioned in the letter in-depth with interested parties, “but these claims are wide-spanning and often significantly more complex than this letter suggests.” Still, he reaffirmed his commitment to continue working with the Family and are currently discussing with its current leadership “very exciting” opportunities for the future of both the organization and human services in Ulster County.