Hochul touts housing plan during Long Island tour as lawmakers worry about density and tenants’ rights

ALBANY — Gov. Hochul talked transit, zoning and affordability on Thursday as she journeyed to Long Island to push her ambitious plans to address New York’s housing crisis.

The governor joined local leaders as she toured Patchogue in Suffolk County and highlighted portions of her New York Housing Compact, a plan she says will set the state on the path to building 800,000 new homes over the next decade.

“It’s ambitious, but I know we can reach it together,” the governor said a day after lawmakers critiqued and questioned the plan during a budget hearing in Albany.

Hochul, a Democrat, pushed back on critics who have painted the proposal, which requires every town, city and village in the state to set a target number of new homes to create over a three-year period, as a top-down approach saying that communities will have the flexibility to build as they wish.

“But municipalities, you can do whatever you want in terms of just creating some growth. And yes, people say, ‘Why? Why? Why?’ Because the status quo has not worked,” the governor said.

Under the plan, downstate areas, including Westchester, Putnam and both Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island, would be required to grow their housing stocks by 3% every three years.

Upstate towns would have to meet a target of 1% growth every three years.

The governor also wants to see more multi-residence projects near MTA subway and train stations. Her proposal requires municipalities with MTA rail stations to rezone areas within half a mile of a station to allow for at least 25 homes per acre.

The proposal includes $250 million for infrastructure to accommodate the increased density including sewers, schools and road work.

Hochul’s office put out a pair of press releases Thursday with supportive comments from more than two dozen officials praising her plan.

Sen. Jack Martins (R-Nassau), however, described the governor’s housing compact as a “mandate” and “one-size-fits-all” approach during Wednesday’s housing budget hearing.

“We see it as an attack on our suburban communities,” Martins said while questioning RuthAnne Visnauskas, commissioner of the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, about siting and density.

Criticisms have also come from Hochul’s left as progressive Democrats call for greater tenant protections to be included as part of the plan.

Many liberal lawmakers and advocates are pushing for the “Our Homes, Our Power” legislative package, which includes “good cause” eviction, a long-sought piece of legislation that would give tenants a defense against unwarranted evictions and the right to challenge unreasonable rent increases.

Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan), the chair of the Assembly’s housing committee, said during Wednesday’s hearing she’d like to see the governor support more programs “to help tenants across the state stay in their homes and to help new people find a place they can afford to buy.”

Rosenthal also questioned why the housing compact doesn’t specifically push for more affordable units to be built.

Hochul’s housing push came the same day an Appellate Court upheld a lower court ruling striking down the city of Albany’s good cause eviction law.

The five-judge panel determined that local good cause laws are preempted by state law, meaning such protections must be approved at the state level.

Advocates said the decision only emphasized the importance of convincing the Dem-led Legislature to pass good cause as lawmakers negotiate budget details with Hochul ahead of the state’s April 1 fiscal deadline.

With Albany tenants in limbo, this court decision only makes passing statewide Good Cause more urgent. If cities can’t pass Good Cause, the state must act now to pass this crucial legislation,” said Cea Weaver, the campaign coordinator with the tenant rights group Housing Justice for All.