In a move to tackle one upstate region’s housing crunch, Ulster County Jail in Kingston, NY is being reborn as a mixed-use community.
The jail, which faced♛ꦍ the , is making way for desperately needed housing.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, speaking in Hyde Park this week, unveiled plans to boost housing in New York’s Mid-Hudson region.
“Communities all over the Mid-Hudson region are stepping up in extraordinary ways to address the housing crisis,” Hochul said. “The Mid-Hudson Momentum Fund is not just helping them build more housing — it’s helping them chart a path toward a more affordable New York.”
A whopping $67 million in staꦐte funding will go towards building more than 2,400 housing units, including more than 1,300 affordable homes. The funds will also support transit-oriented development and infrastructure upgrades.
The standout✃ project? The form🐻er Ulster County Jail in Kingston.
The site will feature 160 units, split evenly between senior and work🎐force housing, affordable at 30-60% of the area median income.
A 5,000-square-foot community building will offer residents🎶 fitness space and spaces for local organizations to provide services.
RuthAnne Visnauskas, New York State Homes and Community Renewal Commissioner, praised the initiative to the : “These projects will benefit communities and thousands of their residents in so many ways — from new construction of hundreds of new homes and funding essential infrastructure improvements to transforming a former jail into modern apartments.”
Ulster Co꧃unty Legislator Peter Criswell echoed the excitement, highlighting the significance of the $34.5 million in federal funds fueling the transformation.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the County,” he said in a previous press conference, “and we took a good amount of time to analyze what we wanted to do with this money — looking at the deepest and longest term impact that we could have on the County.”
Residents are expe🥀cted to move in by the end of the year, accord൲ing to .
Other projects in the pipeline include 🙈a new mixed-income building in Poughkeepsie and two residential towers in Mount Vernon.