Dear Friend,

New York is in a full-blown housing crisis, which is exacerbating the affordability crisis being felt by families all across our state. From Brooklyn to Buffalo, we haven’t built enough housing to keep up with our population, which is driving up housing costs and pricing people out of their homes.

Stable, affordable homes create stable, safe communities. We must take urgent action to meet this moment and deliver a bold housing plan that puts New Yorkers first.

Earlier this year, Governor Hochul set an ambitious goal to build 800,000 new homes across the state. The Governor’s plan would require every community in the state to build its fair share of new housing, using a variety of different strategies to meet that target, including greater density requirements, the use of transit-oriented development, and incentivizing new construction.

I support the Governor’s goal to build more housing, but just building new housing isn’t enough. We need a comprehensive plan that will create truly affordable housing and keep people in their homes. As we work to finalize the state’s $230 billion budget this week, here’s what I think - at the very least - what a comprehensive housing plan should include:

Build housing that is affordable for multiple income levels, including deep affordability.
Ensure any development incentives are tied to true affordability and not just for market or luxury housing.
End exclusionary zoning practices that restrict new housing such as bans on new construction, apartment construction, and alternative dwelling units.
Require every part of the state to build adequate new housing commensurate with population demands and growth.
Make it easier to build new homes by streamlining approvals and eliminate outdated and burdensome regulations and requirements
Create strong tenant protections against unreasonable rent increases and evictions without good cause or justification.
Enactment of the New York Housing Access Voucher Program, which will keep struggling families in their homes and help homeless families get out of the shelter system.
Reform to New York City’s broken property tax system, which unfairly penalizes owners in outer-borough neighborhoods and undervalues homes in New York’s wealthiest neighborhoods
Stabilize public housing funding so that residents and housing stock are left further behind.