Hochul's affordable housing plan, defeated in budget talks, likely to rise again

ALBANY — Even though Gov. Kathy Hochul pulled her affordable housing proposal from the newly adopted state budget, momentum has grown since then to deal with an issue long ignored by Albany, according to legislators and researchers.

“We're going to start talking about housing again,” Hochul said last week. “We need to go big. We need to be bold and ambitious in what we're trying to do to solve the affordability crisis because we're going to lose too many New Yorkers.”

The legislative leaders who opposed the proposal in budget negotiations also are now pushing for a major housing affordability initiative. That effort is expected to begin in the remainder of this legislative session, which ends in June, and continue next year.

“I do believe the conversation has been elevated, which is important,” said Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. “I do know that it will be in continued discussion, certainly in my conference.”

Hochul had proposed a goal of creating 800,000 more housing units — apartments, condos and houses — over the next decade with specific targets for communities of roughly 3% growth on Long Island, New York City and Westchester and 1% upstate. She ultimately withdrew her housing plan in closed-door negotiations on April 20 after legislative leaders refused to accept a provision to create a state board that could overrule local zoning officials who block new housing projects.

Lawmakers said they were supporting “local control” and feared a “not-in-my-backyard” backlash that could cost them legislative seats. They pushed instead for doubling Hochul’s $250 million in incentives for infrastructure aid to local governments. Hochul, however, refused to withdraw the provision, calling it the cornerstone of her proposal.

The New York University Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Planning agreed the state has to play a role in improving housing affordability. The center has researched how “local control in land use decision-making may influence the availability of affordable housing and contribute to economic and racial segregation … Both practice and theory suggest that local governments will not fix these problems themselves.”

Robert Silverman, a professor of urban and regional planning at the state University at Buffalo, agreed.

“Without reforms to local zoning and land use laws, any mandate to add affordable units is relatively toothless,” Silverman told Newsday.

“The slowdown in new construction has been one of the main drivers of housing costs …," Silverman said. "If the state cannot encourage local government to reform their zoning and land use regulations, one of the only other options left would be for the state to spend a substantial amount of money subsidizing new development, mortgage interest, and rents."

Republicans and some Democrats at the state and local levels had held rallies on Long Island and in Westchester County to oppose the idea of a state board that could overrule local zoning officials. They called it an assault on “local control” of zoning and a threat to the neighborhood character of single-family neighborhoods.

“Housing being out is a good thing for Long Island,” said Sen. Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick (R-Malverne), referring to its removal from the state budget. “My constituents were heard.”

Hochul is emphasizing the “urgency” of action in the remainder of the legislative session as well as in her next budget proposal in 2024.

Stewart-Cousins outlined a plan that would include public hearings, which can rally support, improve legislation and educate voters for a major housing initiative to pass in 2024, a legislative election year. Historically, controversial legislation, which can flip legislative seats and majority control in elections, often isn't taken up in election years.

“I’ve heard from a lot of my municipalities that they want to do something, and I think we can get something done,” Stewart-Cousins said.

On Tuesday, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said he wants housing talks to begin “as soon as the budget is done.”

“I think everyone agrees,” Heastie said.

Hochul also has growing support from rank-and-file legislators in the Democratic supermajorities from Manhattan, Long Island, Westchester and upstate.

“I agree with the governor’s original plan,” said the Assembly’s deputy speaker, Phil Ramos (D-Brentwood). “When people keep shouting about local control, remember that local control gave us segregated schools and covenants that people were prohibited from selling their homes to Black people … the benefit is it will diversify Long Island.”

“We need housing and particularly affordable housing,” said Assemb. Chris Burdick (D-Bedford) on Tuesday as the state budget was adopted. “Let’s develop a plan and not wait until January to have a real conversation about it.”

In Tompkins County, Assemb. Anna Kelles (D-Ithaca) said her upstate constituents “told me we have to talk about housing. And we are sent here to represent the people.”

New York has seen several bold proposals shot down at first, only to rise again as popular measures. In 2007, Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s proposal to provide driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants to make streets and home security safer was defeated, only to be accepted in 2019 here and in several other states. In 2009, Gov. David Paterson’s attempt to pass same-sex marriage as a civil right failed, but then was approved under Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo three years later.

“All significant movements throughout our history have taken time,” Hochul said. “This is a movement that is long overdue to recognize that people have a right to live in all communities. So that is going to be my commitment throughout my entire duration as governor.”

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.