By Tim Farkas / For NYVT Media

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says her parents began married life in a trailer park, then progressed to a small upstairs flat and “a little” Cape Cod house. As her father changed jobs, she watched her parents’ success increase through the different homes they could afford.

“They knew how important housing was,” Hochul said. “. . . Because when there’s not sufficient housing for people at all income levels, they struggle. (And) if things get bad enough, they leave in search of opportunity elsewhere.”

Hochul recounted her family’s story in her prepared remarks in January in Albany during the State of the State address, in which she introduced the New York Housing Compact, a plan aimed at energizing the housing development she said is needed for communities to prosper.

The governor said the compact seeks to address the housing crisis by building 800,000 new, affordable homes in New York over the next decade, a plan that administration officials project will double the number of units that normally would have been built during that time period. Hochul said construction targets will exist for each community, with financial help available from the state.

Hochul said in a January news release that the compact will make both a $250 million infrastructure fund and a $20 million planning fund available to support the production of new housing across the state. She said municipalities can submit requests for planning funding.

Still, tenant advocacy groups in the state are criticizing Hochul’s plan, as renters generally have been more impacted by the housing crisis than homeowners have.

Canyon Ryan, executive director of United Tenants of Albany, said he doesn’t think the governor’s compact addresses the current needs of tenants or their needs in the next decade.

“It seems that this new housing plan is more than likely going to be a handout to big developers under the auspices of producing more affordable housing without (ensuring) the housing is affordable,” he said. “I really find it difficult to imagine these new units are going to be more affordable than what already exists.”

Ryan said a better plan involves several bills being introduced in the state legislature this year that would help tenants in the immediate term. Among those proposals, he said, are “good cause eviction” – which necessitates “cause” to evict – and the “winter eviction moratorium,” which he said would prevent evictions during “the roughest time of the year for many New Yorkers.”

Cea Weaver, who heads the statewide Housing Justice for All group, said per Spectrum News in New York City that Hochul “has made a big deal about a housing plan that is going to deliver nothing for New Yorkers tomorrow.”

“Even if you take everything she said at face value, and you believe it’s going to work the way she says it’s going to work, which I don’t, that’s a plan that delivers in three years, five years, 10 years,” Weaver said.

“To truly solve the housing crisis, we need robust protections from rent hikes and evictions (and) deep investment in rental assistance,” she said in a news release.

Cherie Kory, executive director of the Glens Falls Housing Authority – which provides federally funded housing programs to qualified low-income individuals and families in Warren County and parts of Washington and Saratoga counties – said any discussion of affordable housing among politicians has to be tied to employment.

“They keep talking about these affordable rental units and places to live, but how about the jobs – what are you doing about the jobs?” she said. “What are you doing to help educate our folks for better jobs leading to more affordable housing?”

The unemployment rate in New York in December was 4.3%, tied with Michigan for the fifth-worst rate in the nation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In her own criticisms of the affordability issue, Hochul has called New York “a national leader in blocking housing.” From a personal perspective, she said, her young staff upstate “can’t find a place to rent that they can afford.”

“They can’t. The idea of buying a house is so out of their reach,” Hochul said in a December speech at the New York Housing Conference’s annual awards program in New York City.

“Every community, every small town, every local zoning board, every planning board, every community has a role to play, and they must,” she said in regard to the housing crisis.

In her State of the State address, Hochul said that over the past 10 years, 800,000 more jobs than homes have been created in New York. She said that through zoning, “local communities hold enormous power to block growth.”

“Between full-on bans of multi-family homes and onerous zoning and approvals processes, they make it difficult – even impossible – to build new homes,” Hochul said. “People want to live here, but local decisions to limit growth mean they cannot.”

She said local governments “can and should make different choices.”

Despite Hochul’s call for change at the local level, Brian Campbell – the town supervisor in Hebron and a member of the Washington County board of supervisors – said the governor and state lawmakers are focused mostly on New York City.

“The powers that be in Albany are collectively more concerned about New York City than they are about Hebron and Washington County,” Campbell said. “Housing costs in our county and in the town of Hebron are significantly lower than any metropolitan areas of the state. With that being said, the cost of living is lower here and so are wages. So everything is relative.”

Campbell said there is a broad range of housing prices in Hebron – some affordable to the general population, and some not.

“Places have sold for less than $100,000, and places have sold for over a million dollars,” he said, adding: “The rising interest rates are certainly not going to help in home ownership. Right now I’m not sure anything could be considered affordable because of inflation and interest.”

The nation’s annual inflation rate for 2022 was 8%, a significant increase from the 1.2% figure for 2020 and the highest rate since 1981, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at the end of 2022 was 6.42%, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (Freddie Mac). For the same week in 2020, the rate was 2.67%.

That means a Washington County home purchased for the December 2022 median price of $215,000 with a down payment of about $15,000 would cost homebuyers approximately $445 more a month in mortgage payments than in the same month in 2020 – $1,799 vs. $1,354.

This past October, mortgage rates went above 7% for the first time in two decades.

The governor noted there is a lower supply of housing, and when that happens, demand raises prices.

“And who gets squeezed? Middle-income families and low-income families,” she said in the State of the State.

Hochul said every locality in the state will have a target for building new homes. Upstate, the goal is for the housing stock to increase by 1% every three years; downstate, it’s 3% every three years.

“Many localities across the state are already hitting these goals,” Hochul said. “Many others are falling just a bit short.”

The governor noted that in small locales, “just a handful of new homes will mean they hit their targets. But the reality is that some communities will need to effect real change to build the homes we need.”

Campbell said building homes isn’t a problem in Hebron.

“I’ve never signed as many building permits as I have in the last two years, and there has been a lot of building going on around the county,” he said. “I would be surprised if we didn’t meet the 1% figure.”

But Campbell said the key to affordable housing rests with the state’s leaders.

“We need to quit listening to what they say and watch what laws and regulations they put on us. That is the real story here,” he said.

Hochul pointed out in her January news release that over half of New York renters are “rent-burdened,” meaning they pay more than 30% of their household income on rent, the second-highest rate in the country.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported in December that renters are more likely than homeowners to spend more than 30% of their income on housing in “almost all” counties in the nation.

Hochul said during the State of the State that local governments can devise their own plans to reach their affordable-housing targets, including redeveloping old office parks, incentivizing production of new housing and updating zoning rules to reduce barriers.

“We know this is a big ask,” she said. “And that’s why localities will get help from the state to accomplish this shared objective. We will offer substantial new funding for infrastructure like schools, roads and sewers needed to support growing communities. And we will cut red tape to allow projects to move forward quickly while still protecting the health, safety and environment of our communities.”

Among her proposals to incentivize the construction of new housing and the rehabilitation of existing structures is to update property tax exemptions to support homeowners who build accessory dwelling units.

ADUs – including backyard cottages – are smaller, independent-living units located on the same property as the main dwelling. The units must contain a kitchen and bathroom and can either be attached or detached from the primary residence, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In last year’s State of the State address, Hochul announced a $25 billion funding plan to create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes over five years. The 800,000 new homes announced this year are in addition to that total.

Jeff Friedman, ex-president of the Greene County Chamber of Commerce and a former developer and current business owner in Saratoga County, said the $25 billion figure comes with an asterisk.

“Five billion (a year) sounds like a big number, but then consider how big New York State is and how many people would be biting at that pie,” he said. “When we get to the end of the line, we all have our hat in our hand.”

Hochul, meanwhile, said that making sure the state has enough housing is crucial.

“Housing is a human right,” she said. “Ensuring enough housing is built is how we protect that right.”

Back to “The Search for Affordable Housing”