A Black-led housing rights organization alleges that it was displaced by an upstate New York arts space after it was notified of a 137.5% rent increase following three years of tenancy. Staff members at the Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition (HCHC) have publicly accused the Foreland Catskill arts complex of contributing to the gentrification of the historic waterfront community.
HCHC was founded in 2020 as a tenants’ rights nonprofit working at the intersections of housing, criminal, and racial justice to protect low-income residents of primarily Black and Brown communities in the Columbia, Greene, and Albany counties. In 2020, the nonprofit took up residence in a building on Catskill’s Main Street that was then owned by Etsy founder Rob Kalin, signing a lease for $500 in monthly rent for access to most of the structure. HCHC co-founder Quintin Cross and Executive Director Tanya Jackson told Hyperallergic that the group used the space as an office and as a venue for regular meetings surrounding local housing issues, community events, and youth programs in light of the permanent closure of the Catskill Community Center.
“Life-long residents here don’t have a place to call their own or to congregate,” Cross explained, noting that the HCHC office recently hosted a birthday party for a resident from Hop-O-Nose Homes, a public housing complex in Catskill, since there are few affordable venues left in the town.
Kalin sold the building in November 2020 to Stef Halmos and her father, the head of the investment company Halmos Holdings, who had purchased an old riverfront mill on the perpendicular Water Street in 2017 to begin constructing Foreland. With $12.5 million from Halmos Holdings and $1.5 million in state-issued grants, Halmos finalized Foreland in 2022 across three buildings as a multi-use contemporary arts and events space with galleries, artist studios, and a co-working area.
HCHC’s lease was transferred to Halmos and its office space was reduced as Foreland built out the space. During this period, Halmos reportedly reduced HCHC’s rent to $400 — the monthly average for electricity and temperature control. But on May 1, 2023, Halmos notified HCHC via email that Foreland would be increasing the coalition’s rent payment for the approximately 800-square-foot space from $400 to $950 — a 137.5% hike — if it was to renew its lease in August.
During an in-person meeting later that month, HCHC was granted a six-month lease extension through the end of 2023 and was presented with two other options: a smaller space in the complex that matched what the coalition could afford, or access to the co-working space for $150 a month. HCHC deemed the latter option untenable, as its clients needed a private place to discuss confidential matters.
When the coalition’s Director of Operations Elliott Matos returned the signed lease extension in mid-August, Halmos responded that HCHC must agree to the $950 monthly rent — “the market value” — to stay, and couldn’t guarantee a smaller space because the complex was at capacity.
“Market rates are meant to displace people, especially those in Black and Brown communities,” Matos replied, and proposed a gradual rent increase over two years to meet Halmos’s rate of $950.
Halmos responded that she felt it was best that the coalition vacates the office within the agreed-upon timeline, characterizing the relationship between HCHC and Foreland as “abusive and inappropriate.” Matos pleaded with Halmos not to “throw [HCHC] out of a space which means so much to the organization.”
A representative for Foreland declined to elaborate on Halmos’s characterization of the working relationship with the coalition, citing tenant confidentiality. In a statement to Hyperallergic, Halmos said that while she stood by Foreland’s decision to not renew HCHC’s lease, she would have “taken a breath and explained the decision to part ways with more patience and tact,” if she had to do it again.
In a building-wide email dated September 9 reviewed by Hyperallergic, Halmos explained Foreland’s position to tenants (excluding the coalition), claiming that Foreland has “bent over backward to accommodate HCHC’s needs and to be supportive.” Halmos noted both the subsidized rent, the $15,000 build-out of HCHC’s office, and a $5,000 in-kind donation to the coalition in the form of loaning an event space for their fundraiser.
On September 21, HCHC posted screenshots of Matos’s email exchange with Halmos on its Instagram account, stating that it had “been displaced” from its Catskill office and mobilizing some of Foreland’s creative tenants, including Nicholas Weist, who works for an art nonprofit. Weist and others have formed the group Catskill Artists and Creatives for Housing Equity (CACHE) in response to HCHC’s lease termination as well as what they perceive as wealthy art organizations’ role in gentrifying Catskill and the greater Hudson Valley. Noting that “Foreland itself is creating the market rate,” Weist shared CACHE’s petition calling on the arts complex to “directly address its contributions to gentrification in Catskill.”
Weist backed up his claims by citing a July report published by Greene County’s Department of Economic Development, Tourism, and Planning which states that there were no scheduled plans for the development of affordable housing for low-income residents throughout the county. The report also acknowledges that whatever is available in the limited rental inventory is markedly unaffordable to most of the county’s labor force.
The petition asks Foreland to invest 1% of its revenue back into the town through a community initiative fund, maintain the soon-to-be former HCHC office space as a free and accessible community event space, and reinstate “free public access to the Catskill Creek waterfront within the Foreland campus.”
Cross said there has been an explosion of short-term rentals such as Airbnbs as well as rent hikes in the area since Foreland opened.
“Foreland has been a great success if you’re looking at it through a tourism standpoint,” he continued, which is especially true considering the complex’s visitor reach through its participation in the last three iterations of the annual Upstate Art Weekend. Jackson, who said she’s seen a lot of “For Sale” signs interspersed between new businesses on Main Street, added that the recent conflict with Foreland has caused the coalition to consider commercial displacement on top of residential displacement when thinking about gentrification in Catskill.
Foreland’s representative told Hyperallergic that it views the arts complex as “a for-profit development with altruism in mind,” noting that the business has donated “vast sums in the form of rent subsidies, free educational initiatives, donation of space, free public artworks and exhibitions, fellowships, panel discussions, and fiscal gifts to community groups beyond the $24,800 of in-kind donations to HCHC specifically.”
Laura and Liam Singer, a couple who own and have run the Avalon Lounge since 2019 a few blocks north of Foreland, both stated that “commercial rents have shot up” since the arts venue opened. Prior to Avalon, the Singers also noted that the rent for the former cafe space they had leased next to Foreland “went up significantly” after they vacated it.
In addition to CACHE’s petition, several artists, including Foreland tenants Caitlin MacBride and Elbert Perez, contributed artwork to a benefit auction on behalf of HCHC that took place on December 1. The auction, also supported by a few local businesses, raised over $16,000 in proceeds, which Matos said he wanted to use to hire a Black-owned moving company to help consolidate their Foreland office into their main headquarters in the town of Hudson.
MacBride and Perez both told Hyperallergic that they had attended HCHC’s weekly meetings in light of the rent hike notice and wanted to identify ways to help the coalition in the short- and long-term. Perez assisted in securing the physical venue for the auction, and MacBride said that her studio was the drop-off spot for included works.
“When I moved here, I was really naive about how gentrification is affecting Upstate New York,” MacBride explained. “I was priced out of so many parts of Brooklyn that I should have known. But now that I know, I really hope we can find ways to push the government to protect long-term residents and insist that developers consider the communities they enter.”
Members from CACHE attended the Catskill Village Board meeting on December 13, introducing the group and its collaboration with HCHC for initiatives addressing art’s role in the town’s and region’s gentrification as well as the current housing affordability crisis.
“We want Foreland to succeed,” Weist clarified. “No one is trying to cancel anybody. But it’s important that Foreland succeeds while reinvesting in the town and welcoming its neighbors into the creative conversation.”
