In the Kingston of the mid-1940s, five men, named Arthur Davis, Jr, John DeGasperis, Max Mones, Louis Netter and George Yerry, had a vision, which according to the local newspaper, went against popular thought. The paper stated that some city leaders thought the creation of a government housing program would be "communistic and socialistic." But Arthur Davis' group believed public housing was the answer to housing problems faced by returning veterans of World War II. Debate raged in Kingston City government from 1945 to 1948, and at its culmination, the Davis group prevailed. The Kingston Housing Authority was founded on December 8, 1948. Establishing a Housing Authority turned out to be easier than establishing housing itself. But in October, 1953, the KHA rented its first apartment. The Colonial Gardens development set the standards for everything that would follow. In 1966, Wiltwyck Gardens, the second complex, opened its doors. Then the pace picked up. By 1969, an addition to Colonial Gardens had been built and in 1970, Rondout Gardens was finished.  Stuyvesant Charter was completed as a redevelopment project in 1999. At the turn of the century, the Hudson River Valley began to undergo a housing shortage approaching crisis levels and our organization responded. Brigham Senior Housing opened in 2001.