Tenants at the Stony Run apartment complex gathered outside their buildings Tuesday evening with the Hudson Valley Tenants Union to demand better living conditions in the largest rent-stabilized apartment complex in Kingston.

June Nemon, the lead organizer for the Hudson Valley Tenants Union, detailed how landlords attempted to force tenants into higher-rent leases before Kingston opted into rent stabilization. Nemon also said the owners of the complex, Will Broker and Mike Amato with Aker Companies, raised rent for new tenants by striking a deal with Mayor Steve Noble to convert the complex into workforce housing.

“Workforce housing essentially is a federal way of allowing landlords to get large federal grants to invest in the complexes as long as they promise to not let rent go over a certain amount,” Nemon said. “The issue with that is that amount is set by regional income, area median income, and in Ulster County, the average Kingston tenant makes 30 percent of the area median income, whereas this workforce housing agreement sets their rents at 80 to 120 percent of the area median income.”

As a result of becoming workforce housing, Stony Run received a $35 million loan from the Federal National Mortgage Association, a.k.a. Fannie Mae.

Despite this funding, many Stony Run tenants report that issues with the apartment complex are not being addressed, such as outdated infrastructure, lack of outdoor lighting at night and recurring sewage backups. For Raquel Gonzales, council member of the Hudson Valley Tenants Union and part of the tenant board negotiating with landlords, the issues began once she moved in four years ago.

Gonzales said her rent was illegally increased despite her apartment being protected by the state Emergency Tenant Protection Act (ETPA). Gonzales has since been able to decrease her rent, but this is being appealed by the owners. Within the first five months of moving in, Gonzales said the ceiling of her living room caved in.

“It took them from July 2 all the way to about October to actually have someone come out and fix it. And within that time, it was a very bad time for me because I was also losing my father,” Gonzales said. “If you put in a work order, they’ll close it out. I put in work orders because in July of this year we had a sewage backup, and our walls, our floors were stripped up, there was fecal matter on the floors.”

According to Gonzales, many tenants do not feel safe due to the infrastructure issues but do not speak up out of fear of retaliation. Raphael Celon, a former maintenance worker at Stony Run, said that while maintenance employees and building management often bear the brunt of tenant frustration, the issues are systemic.

“[Tenants] don’t realize that a lot of times you have good maintenance workers that are trying, but due to budgets and due to the management pretty much having their hands cuffed behind their backs by the owners, there’s not much they can do,” Celon said. “They’re giving them pennies to repair what costs thousands.”

Celon said he quit because of this. He said the windows in the building are outdated, allowing bugs and the cold in, and the HVAC systems are pushing out dust and mold due to not being properly cleaned and maintenance lacking the tools to do so. A tenant who spoke alongside Celon, Mike Grassi, confirmed that the HVAC filters are as “black as can be,” which is harmful for him as he has asthma and his elderly mother.

The lack of support or funding from the owners, Celon said, means maintenance workers have to “jump into the lion’s den and figure it out.”

“It is completely not fair and horrendous to have to be employed in that type of situation because you have a lot of people who are confused and don’t know who to blame, and the maintenance guys and the management are the middlemen, so they get the brunt of it,” Colen said.

A Stony Run Tenants Union leader, Teresa Greene, discussed challenges of negotiating with landlords. Green said that when the ETPA was passed, many tenants did not understand what it meant, leading to her and others doing research and connecting with advocates.

“Shortly after that, we formed the tenant union to try to stand up for the issues that were happening here at Stony Run,” Greene said. “They had been slowly happening before our new owner came on, so they inherited a pretty rough situation, but they handled it very poorly.”

Since then, a Stony Run Community Board consisting of tenants, management and representatives for Aker Companies formed to meet monthly and discuss issues at the complex. Greene said the requests her and other tenants brought up, such as the lack of outdoor lighting, were never resolved.

“Our owners have to be accountable to the concerns of the tenants because we are the ones paying them,” Greene said. “And so we’re here tonight to say, ‘We are here. We’re not going to go anywhere. We’re going to keep being loud about it, and we’re going to keep pushing for decent and affordable living.’”

For many tenants, especially the elderly, the lack of outdoor lighting is a serious safety concern. Grassi asked, gesturing to the near-pitch black surroundings outside the building: “if [my mother] walks outside and falls, because you can see that you cannot see anything, and breaks a hip, who's paying for that?”

One tenant, Trina Wolfersteig, told the crowd that one night, after it had snowed, she returned from a wake and had to park further from her building. While walking, she could not see where the road dipped, and ended up falling and breaking her ankle.

“I’m old, but I’m not that old, but I know there are people here who are elderly,” Wolfersteig said. “I had to walk to all my parking places with a boot on crutches because you have to park in Timbuktu from your building.”

The tenants received support from Common Council Majority Leader Michele Hirsch (D-Ward 9), who attended and spoke at the protest. Nemon highlighted her history of voting against workforce housing agreements that threaten tenant rights and her support for rent stabilization.

“Housing security is the foundation of belonging,” Hirsch said. “And just because you have a lease does not mean you have housing security. Not when you’re having sewage backup, you don’t have lighting, you don’t know whether or not your lease is going to be renewed or what next trick is coming.”

Hirsch said the fact that Stony Run is run by a “corporate landlord that received a 40-year agreement from the city and a $35 million loan from Fannie Mae” makes the situation “entirely unacceptable.”

At the end of the protest, Nemon encouraged tenants to continue following the Hudson Valley Tenants Union for further actions. Nemon addressed Broker and Amato directly when she asked the tenants if this was “all we are going to do” if concerns were not addressed — the answer was a resounding “No!” from the crowd

“It would be in your best interest to stop this now and invest in the complex now,” Nemon said, addressing Broker and Amato. “Because every day you don’t, we will continue to escalate and we’ll make it more and more of a problem for you. And we are definitely going to sue you.”