This evening, Gossips received the following press release from the Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition (HCHC) regarding an apartment building on Main Street in Philmont known as Richardson Hall. The building is/was owned by the Galvan Foundation and is presumably one of the properties in Columbia County being conveyed to Bard College.
The Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition (HCHC) is calling for immediate action after learning that Richardson Hall, a Galvan/Bard housing project in Philmont long known as senior housing, has been evacuated.
Residents, many of whom are seniors and people with disabilities, have now been placed at the Churchtown Firehouse. For years, residents have complained about conditions at Richardson Hall, just as many tenants across Columbia County have complained about having to rent from Galvan-controlled housing.
This crisis did not happen overnight. The evacuation of Richardson Hall raises serious questions about Galvan's responsibility, but it also raises questions about Columbia County's role, oversight, and absence when it comes to housing.
"Residents should not have to wait until a building is evacuated before their complaints are taken seriously," said Shirle Cross, Co-Founder and Board Chair of HCHC. "These are seniors and people with disabilities. They deserved safe, stable, accessible housing long before they were forced into an emergency shelter situation."
HCHC has attempted to reach out to Galvan regarding these concerns. We have also regularly asked our state partners to hold a public town hall meeting with the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) so tenants and community members can speak directly about unsafe housing, tenant protections, housing discrimination, and the lack of accountability in Columbia County.
The evacuation of Richardson Hall shows exactly why that kind of public meeting is urgently needed.
"We need more than private conversations and closed-door decisions," said Shirle Cross. "Residents deserve answers. The public deserves answers. Galvan must be held accountable, and Columbia County must explain where it has been."
HCHC is calling on the Columbia County Board of Supervisors, state officials, federal officils, and housing agencies to act immediately.
We are demanding:
- Safe and accessible temporary housing for all displaced Richardson Hall residents.
- A clear plan for permanent housing that does not further harm or displace residents.
- A public review of Galvan's role in the conditions at Richardson Hall.
- A public explanation from Columbia County about what oversight took place and what complaints were received.
- A review of the County's fair housing responsibilities, including the role of the Fair Housing Officer.
- A public town hall with NYS DHCR and state partners focused on unsafe housing, tenant protections, fair housing, and accountability.
- Protection for residents from retaliation for speaking out.
Columbia County cannot continue to be absent when it comes to housing, especially when seniors, people with disabilities, low-income tenants, and other vulnerable residents are the ones being harmed.
From an HCHC lens, housing is not just about buildings. Housing is about health, safety, dignity, civil rights, and whether people can remain in their communities without being ignored or pushed aside.
"The County must stop acting like housing is someone else's problem," said Shirle Cross. "When seniors and people with disabilities end up in a firehouse because their building has been evacuated, that is not only a landlord problem. That is a public failure."
HCHC stands with the residents of Richardson Hall and calls for immediate action, public accountability, and long-term housing solutions rooted in fairness, safety, and dignity.
The press release does not explain why the tenants were evacuated or what problems existed in the building prior to today, but given that we are in the middle of a heat wave, it's not unreasonable to suspect that a failure of the air-conditioning system necessitated moving the tenants to the Churchtown Firehouse.
UPDATE: According to an article that appeared in the Register-Star today, July 3, what forced people to evacuate Richardson Hall yesterday was a water main break: "Philmont water main break forces dozens of seniors from homes."
Galvan, aka Friends of Kamal Johnson Incorporated.
ReplyDeleteQuentin/Elliot/whoever:
ReplyDeleteWhy would the County be involved in this and not the Village? AFAIK the County doesn’t employ Code Enforcement or Building Permit officials. Philmont does.
Why do tenants across the county “have” to rent from Galvan? Why would that be the county’s problem, if true?
Why have HCHC’s “state partners” not arranged the requested meeting(s), and what does that failure have to do with Galvan, Philmont or the County? If their state partners are ignoring them, what does that say about HCHC?
What federal officials does HCHC think should be involved, in what capacity, and why?
How has HCHC coordinated its work to date with the County? How many Board of Supervisors, Housing Task Force or Fair Housing Meetings have HCHC reps attended? How many town or village meetings have HCHC reps attended outside of Hudson? Can they find Clermont on an unlabeled map?
Oh, and: which of your listed demands do you think is an example of the “immediate action” you’re calling for?
ReplyDeleteGet better at this or go away.
July 4th miracle... we may agree with Michael B.
DeleteAlso note that the Columbia County (Social Services) did their legal duty (to find emergency housing) before the HCHC press release was published.
And of course we all hope that the county residents impacted by whatever happened are now safe from the heat wave.
~
Can QC or 5th Ward Common Council member and previous County Supervisor Claire Cousin or anyone from the HCHC group please chime in here.
Is the HCHC mission just to raise money for itself, not file 501c3 tax filings, and then "j'accuse" Bard and elected officials who owe them no duty?
Why not just build one Habitat for Humanity house every month somewhere in the City or County with your own money and labor?
It shouldn't be the responsibility of private citizens, advocacy groups and local town governments to provide housing to seniors and disabled people. This is the responsibility of the Federal and State Government. This situation is one of myriad others representing the total failure of our Federal and State representatives to do their jobs. Their priorities are skewed. One reaper drone or a couple of tomahawk missiles would build a whole housing complex. Killing, theft and exploitation is more important to them than housing. There is no solution but to vote them out of office and for those who committed crimes - lock them up!
ReplyDeleteThere is so much more to this story that has not yet been said, but it will come out.
ReplyDeleteThe residents impacted here are seniors, many of whom have county case workers and have reportedly been raising concerns for years. Some residents receive Section 8 assistance, which raises serious questions about oversight. Were the premises properly inspected? Were complaints documented and followed up on? What did state inspections show? What role has the Columbia County Fair Housing Office played in responding to these concerns?
These are not minor questions. They go directly to whether the systems designed to protect seniors, tenants, and disabled residents were actually doing their job.
It is also fair to ask why residents were moved all the way to Poughkeepsie when Galvan owns a building on 6th Street that is not fully occupied. Why were displaced seniors moved away from their community, support systems, doctors, case workers, and families when local options may exist?
HCHC does not raise these questions to be petty. Three of our co-founders have served in elected office, party leadership, and have lived in this community either their entire lives or for more than 20 years. We understand this community. We understand the systems involved. And we understand what happens when vulnerable residents are left to carry the burden of institutional failure.
The focus should not be on HCHC. The focus should be on the seniors who have been displaced, the complaints that were ignored or minimized, and the public and private entities responsible for protecting them.
When people become more fixated on criticizing the messenger than addressing the harm, the residents suffer twice: first at the hands of a multimillion-dollar corporation, and again through the failure of government systems that should have protected them.
These seniors deserve answers. They deserve accountability. Most of all, they deserve to be treated with dignity.
“It’s not that—it’s this” 🤖🤖🤖
DeleteQC,
DeleteBy HCHC’s own 2025 press release, you pay Galvan/Bard $8k a month, ~$100k a year, for your office on 5th street. Same amount as the Hudson Housing Justice Director salary, coincidentally.
That’s roughly a year of rent for four senior households. If Galvan/Bard is the multimillion-dollar corporation harming residents, why renew your expensive office with them? Just grab a hot desk at a local coworking space.
Cancel the lease and house someone.
.
Since we received a few (supporting) text messages on this comment already.
DeleteLet's run the numbers.
HCHC office rent and salaries + the Hudson Housing Justice Director salary + the CEDC Housing Coordinator salary + benefits, and the pro-housing spend in the zipcode = $500k.
Columbia County's FY2026 fair market rent (~$1,500 for a 2BR), $500k rents ~30 family apartments outright, housing 60–90 people.
Run it as Section 8 gap subsidy and it stretches past 50 families, up to ~150 people.
(Chris Brown, please come in with any opposing data or views, it would be fitting that you still carry water for the housing industrial folks while now ostensibly at an independent think tank).
Instead, that money buys QC ChatGPT press releases and City/County emailed PDFs and Zoom meetings to talk about Albany grants.
Meanwhile Bliss 2.0 will land north of $800k per housing unit (likely a $1m when all is done), and Mayor Ferris is burning ~$100k a year litigating the Mill Street case, which a competent Planning Board (Joyner era) would never have created, and which he originally opposed as candidate.
And that case against resident taxpayers should have settled on day 1.
Add it up: we tax enough, we just have bad leadership and a bad Charter.
~
Is the goal housing people?
Or a type of UBI for housing adjacent "community organizers" who happen to be political organizers for the (mostly Democratic Party and WFP) incumbents every election season?
Hi Hugo. Carole has decided to not publish my first response, so I'll take that particular topic up with you next time I see you on the street (or with HPD).
DeleteRegarding your callout, I'm not sure which data you are referring to. Do you want me to check your math? It isn't really data per se, but it does manage to still be inaccurate. Your formula produces an answer of 27.78, which you'd want to round down since you're talking about humans in households, which gets you to 27. An 11% margin of error is higher than I would be comfortable with personally, but the last time I was asked to correct your numbers on median home sale prices you were off by 50%, so this is a marked improvement for you.
Regarding your proposal: Fair Market Value is not the same thing as 'market rent'; it reflects the 40th percentile of unsubsidized and non-substandard apartment rentals in a given area. Right now, there aren't 30 apartments in the entire county currently being marketed for $1500 or below. There are sixteen, and all but two of them are either one bedrooms or studios.
It should go without saying that I also disagree with your viewpoint. Fortunately for me and everyone else who is impacted by or works on this issue, your viewpoint doesn't actually matter.
Chris, whether 15, 25, or 30 families, the main question stands.
DeleteHudson leaves its mandated Fair Housing Officer seat empty (previously held by Joyner), yet funds and raises housing coordinator and housing justice salaries, and taxpayers pay for both the payroll and their mistakes (see Mill Street).
Was your measure as Housing Coordinator at the CEDC ever completed homes... or meetings, PDFs, and Zoom workshops toward the next Albany grant?
Which is why "your viewpoint doesn't matter", said to taxpayers and residents, might be the most honest thing you have ever written.
Welfare Broker Definition:
An intermediary standing between public money (read: taxpayer funds) and the people it is meant to house, paid from the flow.
I'm not saying that to "taxpayers and residents"; I'm saying that to you, specifically.
DeleteChris, 2 replies here and many on other stories, to a viewpoint “that doesn’t matter”.
DeleteAt Brookings or the Manhattan Institute (real policy shops) they call that a research interest.
HCHC is not a government entity. We are a nonprofit organization, and we do not receive government funding. In fact, we receive a minuscule amount of financial support from people and institutions in Hudson/Columbia County.
ReplyDeleteThat is not an accident. It is part of the tactic.
We are unbought and unbossed. That means we are free to tell the truth about housing conditions, displacement, landlord power, government inaction, and the failures of local leadership without asking permission from the same systems we are challenging.
Reducing HCHC’s work to “office rent and salaries” is a convenient way to erase what actually happens on the ground: tenant organizing, emergency response, public pressure, direct advocacy, housing navigation, exposing unsafe conditions, pushing agencies to act, and standing with people who are usually ignored until there is a crisis.
We are not sitting on public housing money. We are not taking resources away from tenants. We are building the infrastructure to fight for tenants in a county where far too many people have been left to deal with powerful landlords, weak enforcement, and political silence by themselves.
And yes, that independence creates problems for people who are more comfortable when housing conversations stay polite, professionalized, and controlled.
The question is not whether HCHC should exist. The question is why it takes an underfunded, independent Black-led housing organization to force basic accountability in the first place.
QC, “unbought and unbossed” from a founding team of former elected officials and WFP party leaders is a bold branding choice. Did you tell ChatGpt about your past issues with the law.
ReplyDeleteBolder still from a man who pleaded guilty to grand larceny for stealing from the City of Hudson, on city credit cards, while serving as a Common Council member.
Thats not a watchdog outside the system. That’s the fox filing incident reports on the henhouse.
Also Claire Cousin was a Supervisor and HCHC founder/leader. Did she do anything on this front while in “power”? Because we just saw 11 Warren street housing go offline forever on her watch.
And the 501c3 bargain in the US is simple: no taxes, no electoral politics. Yet every election season, like clockwork, HCHC works as a plainly political operation, and your own website’s fine print promises “political and donation related text messages.”
Your words and flyers, not ours.
So yes why don’t you stop giving Bard $100,000 a year in office rent (you have all those Albany Free School (also a 501c3?) buildings you are trying to rent out, use them) and spend it on housing for your members.
Imagine the Press Releases you could send the Gossips of Rivertown and how proud you would make the CommunityTM.
Let me be clear: going to prison is exactly why I am unbought and unbossed.
ReplyDeleteI know what the system does to people. I know what it means to be thrown away, labeled, reduced to your worst moment, and then expected to come home silent, ashamed, and grateful for scraps. I did my time. I came home. I rebuilt. And I have spent my life fighting for people this county would rather ignore.
So no, my past is not the “gotcha” you think it is. It is part of why I refuse to be controlled by politicians, landlords, institutions, or polite nonprofit games.
What is more revealing is how quickly a conversation about displaced seniors, unsafe housing, Galvan, government failure, and local accountability turns into an obsession with Black leadership, Black organizations, Black salaries, Black rent, Black mistakes, and Black survival.
Why does Black business consume you so much?
HCHC is not a government entity. We do not receive government funding. We receive a minuscule amount of local support from Hudson/Columbia County, and that is part of the point. We are not bought. We are not bossed. We are not here to protect anyone’s political comfort.
We are a nonprofit doing housing justice work in a county where tenants are being displaced, buildings are unsafe, and the people with actual power keep dodging responsibility.
You can keep trying to make me the issue. But the issue is housing. The issue is seniors being moved out with no clear return date. The issue is public agencies failing tenants. The issue is landlords and institutions getting protected while poor and working-class people are left to suffer.
My record is public. My work is public too.
Now answer the actual question: who is protecting the tenants?
QC, re-read the thread.
ReplyDeleteNobody here mentioned race until you did, twice. It is your only shield and your only sword.
We stand for two things: protecting taxpayer dollars and the equality of citizens under one law.
Read more: hudsoncommonsense.com/manifesto
You are not used to being held to an equal standard, so when it happens, you cry racism.
You have said publicly that you visit Botswana.
80% Tswana speaking, barely 1% European ancestry, and yet it built the Kgotla, a working democratic culture of open assembly older than Germany, then adopted Western institutions the moment it could, and never looked back.
Batswana focus their money and energy on self-reliance and institutions, the two things you seem to tear down in Columbia County.
To your question (see, we actually answer):
Who protects tenants?
Tenants, backed by the Constitution, the Fair Housing Act, and the courts. Hudson's fair-housing complaint file is nearly empty; check it before manning the barricades.
The County government had these seniors housed before your press release cleared ChatGPT.
Also...
Thoreau went to jail over a war tax. King wrote from a Birmingham jail. You went in for stealing from Hudson's public purse, to a facility with free food, free healthcare, a gym, and Bard College volunteers offering an education. Didn't you also work for Bard?
Not exactly Napoleon on Elba or Mandela on Robben Island.
Free ideas for you to help on the housing front:
ReplyDelete1. Cancel your ~$100,000 Bard lease. House four seniors.
2. Become the best landlord in Hudson and set the standard. Blog about how you did it so that others can follow.
There just happen to be a distressed house with great potential and kind neighbors sitting right in the middle of the city, close to your $100k a year office.
Maybe you know the owners.
Buy it, fix it, rent at break-even to Section 8 seniors who need it. Repeat. In 10 years you own a portfolio no politician can defund.