John,

My parents started off married life in a trailer park. 

They worked hard. They had a few kids. Moved into an apartment.

Kept working hard. Had a few more kids. Bought their first home in Hamburg.

That home was more than a roof over my head. It was security. It was hope. It was part of a foundation that showed me that if you work hard, you can get ahead.

But let’s be honest: Right now, the American Dream is a fantasy for too many New Yorkers. 

For too long, our leaders didn’t prioritize building more housing, and it meant prices continued to go up and out of reach of middle-class families.

I knew that to solve this crisis, we needed to build housing. So that’s what I set out to do. 

On behalf of teachers, first responders, working families, and seniors looking to stay in their communities all across our state, we stood up to the naysayers and passed a once-in-a-generation plan to build thousands of new homes in every corner of the state.

I pledged to build or preserve 100,000 affordable homes in five years and I am proud to say we are making huge strides: we've built or preserved nearly 60,000 homes statewide.

I’m proud of the progress we’ve made, but I also know we have to do more. We have to keep finding ways to build more housing — we need to break ground on more new apartments, we need to make it easier to transform existing buildings into housing, and we need to help more New Yorkers get the keys to their very first home. 

That’s exactly what our budget does.

Our budget invests $500 million to build more housing in every corner of our state, including in our more than 300 Pro-Housing Communities. 

Our budget helps New Yorkers get the keys to their first home with a new starter home fund.

Our budget makes it easier for towns and cities to create housing, changing the regulations and improving tax incentives so that more new homes can get built, faster. 

And our budget cracks down on the private equity giants who are buying up homes with all-cash offers – before families even have a chance to take a tour. 

This is about more than numbers on a page.

It’s about helping New Yorkers stay in their communities, set down roots, and build a strong foundation for themselves and the next generation.

Ever Upward, 

Gov. Kathy Hochul 

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