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KINGSTON, N.Y. — Tents pitched on property owned by the NoVo Foundation have been removed after violations were issued ordering them to be taken down, according to a city spokeswoman.

Summer Smith, director of the city communications and community engagement, said the city’s Building Safety Department has confirmed the tents were removed.

“I have just heard from the Building Safety inspector that the tents are down,” Smith said in an email Thursday.

The Building Safety Department issued a violation on Tuesday, Aug. 16, to the property owner that tent structures used by the homeless at the site needed to be removed no later than Aug. 30 because they were not allowed under the law.

The city previously issued two violation notices on June 27 to the property owner, one after a complaint about “a large bus used for sleeping/occupancy” and another for sanitation. The bus violation carried a penalty, if not resolved, of $1,000 a day, jail or both.

The NoVo Foundation has poured tens of millions into the community in recent years. In a recent open letter to Kingston, Peter Buffett, son of multi-billionaire investor Warren Buffett, touted the foundation’s accomplishments, including the work of the Kingston Food Co-op and the Broadway Bubble, among others. The tents were pitched behind those businesses.

In an Instagram post, The Peoples Cauldron said NoVo, along with representatives of the Kingston Food Co-op and Kingston Midtown Rising, should make a commitment that would allow the homeless community to say put in the vicinity of the 708-718 Broadway parking lot.

The People’s Cauldron, which has received $150,000 from the NoVo Foundation in the past, has said it is a non-denominational religious group whose “fundamental ritual and mission is sharing plant medicine through mutual aid.”

In 2019, The People’s Cauldron acquired a bus through a grant which was renovated into a clinic space, the post said. “This mobile herbal clinic has expanded our capacity to share herbal medicine,” the posting said.

The NoVo Foundation, through the Kingston Co-op, issued a “cease and desist” order to The People’s Cauldron, which positioned the bus in the parking lot on Sundays.

In August, the People’s Cauldron said it had parked its bus behind the co-op for the last few months and has been administering herbs, clean needles, harm reduction supplies, and meals to people living behind the Kingston Food Co-op building and behind the Broadway Bubble, Kingston Food Co-op representative Siobhan DuPont previously said in an email.

“The People’s Cauldron has repeatedly brought its large bus onto the Broadway Bubble lot, which is owned by the NoVo foundation, since May 2022,” said Megan Weiss-Rowe, NoVo program coordinator, in a prepared statement. “Despite repeated requests to move the bus, it remained on-site throughout the month of June, resulting in property violations and numerous complaints from local residents, property owners, and visitors to the laundromat.”

Later in August, the NoVo Foundation said that reports of homeless and other individuals’ drug use, public sex, and harassment activity on its Midtown property have risen to “unacceptable” levels.

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