We the undersigned call on the Foreland arts complex to directly address its contributions to gentrification in Catskill, NY, and create meaningful connections with its neighbors and surrounding community, by: 

• Donating 1 percent of annual revenues back to Catskill in the form of a Community Initiatives Fund,
• Committing to offer and maintain the former Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition office at 361 Main Street as a free, flexible community event space in perpetuity, and
• Reinstating free public access to the Catskill Creek waterfront within the Foreland campus.  

 

 

WHY SHOULD I SIGN THIS PETITION? 
As the largest development in Catskill, the Foreland arts complex has an outsized impact on the local community. 

Community residents, whether directly involved with Foreland or not, are impacted by Foreland’s presence in our area. The influx of capital and status brought by the art complex are driving up prices in Catskill. We invite area residents to sign this petition to encourage Foreland to make direct, meaningful investments in the community and open its doors to local residents.

Artists often unwittingly participate in gentrification and displacement when their talents and cultural status are used as tools by developers and corporations. But with awareness and action, artists can instead increase resiliency where they live and work by building community with their neighbors and using their skills in support of existing cultures. We invite artists and art workers to sign this petition to encourage Foreland to acknowledge and take accountability for its role in gentrification.

 

LOCAL CONTEXT
In 2021, over 48 percent of households were considered “rent-burdened” in Greene County, where Catskill is located—but the sale price of area homes rose about 13 percent between 2021 and 2022. Housing unaffordability is forecast to get worse, with average costs rising faster than average wages and no affordable development anticipated in the near future.

In the fall of 2023, a 137 percent rent hike displaced the Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition, a POC-led housing justice and tenants rights nonprofit, from their office in the Forland art complex.

The press has reported that Foreland’s development cost $12.5 million. The Village of Catskill has a total population of only 4,081. The median household income in Greene County is $62,810 per year.

(Sources: Greene County Workforce Attainability Report, The New York Times, United States Census)

 

WHAT IS A “COMMUNITY INITIATIVES FUND” AND WHAT WILL BE FUNDED?
A Community Initiatives Fund is a way to offset harm caused by rising costs in a specific area. A percentage of revenue from a local business is donated back to the community, to support its citizens, public amenities, and overall well being. 

This petition specifically calls for the initial disbursement of Foreland’s Community Initiatives Fund to be allocated to the reduction of back rent at the Hop-O-Nose public housing complex. It also calls for a diverse group of local stakeholders to review requests and award future disbursements each year following. 

One example of the Community Initiatives Fund model is the Shared Plate Funding Circle in nearby Hudson, NY, in which $.69 is added to every menu item of participating local restaurants and given back to the area as mutual aid. The Percent for Art program of New York City, through which 1 percent of all City-funded real estate developments’ budgets is invested in public art, is a similar initiative with different goals. 

Direct donation to public housing back rent relief also has a local precedent, in Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition's work with an anonymous donor to eliminate back rent at the Bliss Towers public housing complex in Hudson.

 

WHAT IS GENTRIFICATION AND HOW DO ARTISTS CONTRIBUTE TO THIS FORCE? 
Gentrification is a process through which communities are transformed to accommodate an influx of higher income residents. The well-established flow of this narrative describes artists seeking low cost space in low income neighborhoods, thereby increasing demand for space until long term residents and eventually artists themselves are priced out for good. A famous recent example is the rapid series of changes in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, followed by Greenpoint, Brooklyn, followed by Bushwick, Brooklyn. 

 

WHAT IS FORELAND AND HOW HAS IT DIRECTLY CONTRIBUTED TO GENTRIFICATION? 
Foreland is thought to be the largest private real estate development in the history of Catskill, NY, a small town about 120 miles north of New York City. It is owned by Halmos Holdings, a real estate development company that owns over 60 other buildings nationwide.

Foreland opened over 85,000 square feet of art studios, co-working, and gallery/event space in 2021, bringing many artists and other culture workers to Catskill. The arrival of these individuals is the classic “first wave” described above.

Foreland’s extensive press campaigns and the high profile art events it has hosted have dramatically inflated public awareness of the town, and hence the perceived value of its real estate.

In summer 2023, the Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition (HCHC), a POC-led nonprofit that supports tenant rights and housing justice locally, was informed that the rent for its office in Foreland would be increased 137 percent between lease cycles. The organization became a victim of the forces of gentrification that it was established to resist.

 

WHY IS THIS PETITION EXPECTED TO MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE?
Many real estate developments are made by large corporations or held by shadowy legal entities, but Foreland is led by one decision maker: Stef Halmos. Her family is the sole owner of the development and she is its executive director. She holds a Masters of Fine Art from the California College of the Arts, and has been extensively quoted in the press about her lofty goals for an inclusive culture, telling the Albany Times Union in 2021: “When it comes to development, when you do it right, it really is a rising-tide-lift-all-boats type of scenario."

Halmos can be encouraged to do the right thing if enough of her neighbors and colleagues in the art world speak up about the role of artists and real estate developers in the process of gentrification.

 

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR THE PUBLIC TO HAVE ACCESS TO FORELAND?
As the largest development in Catskill, Foreland sends strong signals to the area about who is included in conversations about contemporary art and who is welcome in creative spaces. Reopening its waterfront park and offering the Catskill community space to have meetings, classes, and public programs would be a great first step towards building an inclusive relationship between Foreland and the local community.   

 

WHO IS CIRCULATING THIS PETITION?
An emergent collective of artists, craftspeople, and creatives in the Hudson Valley and Catskills region called CACHE (Catskill Artists and Creatives for Housing Equity).

Formed in the wake of Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition’s displacement, our collective sees how the entanglement of arts and development leads to gentrification and displacement in the places where we live and work, and refuses to participate in that pattern. We want to work together to reimagine what it means to be an artist in community. 

 

HOW ELSE CAN I GET INVOLVED  AFTER SIGNING THE PETITION?
By bidding in an online art auction to benefit to Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition (available through Dec 2, 6pm), or making a direct donation to support HCHC’s ongoing work.

If you are an artist, creative, or art worker (however you define those terms), join CACHE! We are an emergent network of local creatives working to support housing justice initiatives in the Hudson Valley and Catskills region. 

Send us a note (tell us if you want to join!) and sign up for emails here, or follow us on Insta here.