New York State announces $650M plan to encourage affordable housing 

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday announced the state will provide $650 million to local governments, including those on Long Island, that seek to expand housing as part of her new plan to combat the housing affordability crisis.

The governor also said she will require all state agencies to review properties they own — often vacant lots or undeveloped land — to determine if housing can be built on them. She said she will seek to develop hundreds of housing units at the Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill and the Javits Center Site K in Manhattan, a partly empty 1.2-acre parcel near the center.

Hochul was following through on her pledge to use her executive powers to contend with a statewide housing shortage that has driven up property costs and contributed to an exodus of young and retired New Yorkers to states where they can afford housing. Her broader “housing compact” was rejected by the State Legislature earlier this year amid opposition by some local governments, including many officials on Long Island.

“We are going to jump-start housing now … it’s about the entire state of New York, from Brookhaven to Brooklyn to Buffalo,” Hochul said in announcing her plan in Brooklyn.

“At the end of the day, what kind of state do we want to be? A place where the dream of homeownership is so elusive you don’t even think about it? A state where kids who are born and raised in a neighborhood … say, ‘I’m sorry, we have to leave?' We don’t want that,” she said.

A Hochul spokesperson said no communities have yet been chosen for the aid. Municipalities seeking the funds will have to agree to several provisions in a binding agreement and the state will monitor their progress, Hochul said.

The governor also took some shots at the legislature, which she said “wasn’t ready” to take on the politically charged housing crisis. She also said some local officials fought her compact “to keep people out.”

“We’re better than that,” Hochul said.

She said she will continue to seek goals of 3% growth in housing annually for three years on Long Island, in New York City and in Westchester County and 1% annually upstate.

Her executive order announced Tuesday will use an existing $650 million in state funds controlled by the governor to provide to “pro-housing community programs” in municipalities that embrace more housing. The order requires the state to help local governments overcome impediments to promoting housing growth, which could include changing local zoning laws and streaming building permit applications and speeding environmental protecting reviews.

The order seeks to “reward” communities that act to increase housing. Those municipalities that meet annual housing growth targets will get priority in receiving some of the $650 million in state funds, according to the governor’s office. Previously, the community improvement funds were provided to any community that applied for them.

“Communities that do their part to build housing will get priority over those who will not,” she said.

The Long Island Association business group had no immediate comment.

Hochul also said she will consider all parcels owned by the state for housing plots to revive communities.

“Where some see a hellhole, I see homes,” she said.

Hochul said she is developing a coalition with housing advocates and labor unions that have influence with the legislature to support her plan. She said housing affordability will remain a top priority in her term despite the rejection of her compact by the legislature during budget negotiations in March.

“These actions are necessary, important, and yet insufficient to address the scale of our housing crisis,” said Annemarie Gray, executive director of the housing advocate group Open New York. “Nonetheless, we are pleased to see the governor do what she can to make up some ground after Albany’s disastrous and inactive legislative session on housing.”

“The reality is that few municipalities will take advantage of the new ‘pro-housing’ designations, but it is important to call politicians’ bluffs and raise awareness of the limited data that municipalities share on housing as a way of hiding their own refusal to build,” Gray said.

Pilar Moya-Mancera, executive director of Housing Help in Greenlawn, noted that Long Island lawmakers who opposed the governor’s initial plan in the spring said they would be open to an incentive-based program, not one that allowed the state to override local zoning decisions.

“They were not in support of mandates. They were in support of incentives,” Moya-Mancera said. “When they talk about carrots and sticks — here’s the carrot. This is their opportunity to prove to Long Islanders that they really want to be part of the solution and not the problem.”

With Jonathan LaMantia

By Michael Gormley

michael.gormley@newsday.com@GormleyAlbany

Michael Gormley has worked for Newsday since 2013, covering state government, politics and issues. He has covered Albany since 2001.