Governor Kathy Hochul on April 23rd, gathered with Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, as well as labor, housing, and tenant advocates, to celebrate an historic agreement as part of the FY 2025 Enacted Budget to address New York’s housing crisis. The agreement advances policies to increase the housing supply, promote affordability, strengthen protections for New York renters and homeowners, and combat bias and discrimination in housing. The actions build on Governor Hochul’s commitment to tackling the housing crisis and reducing housing costs for all New Yorkers.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Finally, we have a housing deal for New York City and the State of New York. We got it done!

And I want to recognize the people who are standing with me, who worked so hard to get this over the finish line. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. Come on. We were in a foxhole for a long time. But you know what, the long days, the long nights, and there was always that commitment to leave that Budget process with a housing plan that worked for New Yorkers, and I thank you for your leadership and staying with this. I want to give you another round of applause.

Speaker Carl Heastie could not be with us today, but he deserves so much credit as well. He was right there with us, working hard every minute to deliver for New Yorkers. Mayor Eric Adams, thank you for laying out a vision for the City that we can implement. Now let's get to work, Mayor. Let's get to work.

I have the most extraordinary team behind me, led by Secretary to the Governor, Karen Persichilli Keogh. Thank you. KPK is right. All my team was incredible, but I also want to thank RuthAnne Visnauskas, who could not join us here today, but she’s the Commissioner of Housing and Community Renewal. She has worked so hard.

We have Roberta Reardon — the Commissioner of Labor with us here today. Let's give her a shout. All the elected officials who've joined us — the Assemblymembers, the Senators; those who are here, those who could not join us, the Council Members — everybody who stuck together, who worked so closely together, and did what people do not expect out of Albany, which is actually get something seriously accomplished.

We defied the odds and we showed people that when you're willing to show respect for each other and approach with a collaborative spirit, so much could happen. But I will tell you, it also helped so much to have labor on our side.

Manny Pastreich, our host here at 32BJ. Anybody from 32BJ here? I heard you loud and clear. Rich Maroko, President of the Hotel Trades Council. Hotel Trades in the house. HTC is in the house. Gary LaBarbera could not join us. He's at a national conference. If anybody is here from the Building Trades — If you're not, well, you should be. Gary was instrumental in being right there with us to make sure that we can have jobs. Good paying jobs for union members, and that's what it's all about. So, thank you, Gary LaBarbera.

Also, Rachel Fee, Executive Director of the New York Housing Commons. Rachel, you were right there with us every step of the way getting it done. And you're also going to be hearing from Sophia Brewster, a Brooklyn resident, 32BJ member, who is going to be the voice of the people that we're helping here today as well.

You know, since I became Governor two and a half years ago — is that all it's been? It has been my vision for this State to be a place that's welcoming, that people want to have the dignity of home ownership or a place to rent. Teachers, firefighters, police officers, members of the labor union can live in the communities they serve. They can afford to live where they work.

I believed in this to my core, and I knew we could get it done. So today, we think about them and the seniors who want to live in their same communities, but they might want to downsize or go somewhere else, but there's just nothing available for them.

For a long time here in this City and the State, the doors to their next opportunity, their next home, have been closed because there's such a shortage of supply. Literally no room at the end. People could not find a place to live. But today, everything changes. We rolled up our sleeves, we worked with the legislature, the electeds, and we went where no man or woman has gone before.

So today, we celebrate a historic housing agreement, which is part of the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget. An agreement that will transform our State, put tenants and working families first, and allow New York to turn our vision of a better future into a reality. And we know Rome wasn't built in a day, but at least they were building, right? They were building.

And for so long, we didn't have the ambition that other places had to just break through the barriers and all those challenges. All those naysayers, all the NIMBY people who said, “No, not here, not here” because once they're in, they want to shut the door behind them and say, “No, we're good now. Nobody else can come to this neighborhood.”

And that's stifled our opportunity to have more people live here. And guess what? Supply and demand is at force here. Right? Think about it: you build more supply, the prices come down. Less supply, the prices go up. And when you have a situation in the great City of New York — which should have about an eight to seven percent vacancy, or maybe five percent, that we can live with — but it's at one point four percent, which basically means there's no place to go. You are trapped. If you're not here already, you're not coming in. If you want to go somewhere else, then there's no place to go. That's the situation in the great City of New York right now.

So, we all know past leaders did not want to take this on. You can get a little bit burned when you talk about controversial issues like I just described, but I'm proud to say that the legacy of inaction has ended last week — with this landmark years in the making — deal in Albany.

And yes, I was the first Governor in half a century to touch the lightning rod and put housing front and center, but it happened because I had willing partners. And again, I cannot say enough about this Leader and the Speaker and all the people they represented who said we must get this accomplished. And I'm so grateful for that.

We will revolutionize the landscape all across our State, create the biggest expansion in tenant rights that New York State has seen in generations. And above all, we're going to build. We're going to build, build, build, and build. That's what we have to do – thousands and thousands of new units of affordable housing. Incentives like the 485x, extended deadline for the old incentives, and also jumpstart construction so we can get the high paying jobs for our union members.

And as I said, a lot of people said it couldn't get done, but we finally realize that if there's a will — if there's that strength behind us — we know the people want this done. It's empowering, my friends. We knew who we were fighting for every step of the way. It's the people in this room, and the people out there, and everybody who ever is a New Yorker or wants to be a New Yorker, because if you're not a New Yorker, you're a New Yorker wannabe. We know that. We got it done.

We also want to authorize the City to have a basement pilot program. Other cities have done this. This is how they're dealing with housing crises in other cities. Now people are saying, “I don't want it in my neighborhood”. Okay, your kid out of school wants to live at home for a little while until they get on their feet. Oh, you're not allowed. Grandma and Grandpa can't live with you? No, you're not allowed. Let's break down these barriers and keep families together. This is what we're talking about.

Also, we’re worried about our tenants who are exposed to price gouging. They're held captive. Their landlords can raise the rent any way they want. But now they can't. Now they will not be able to. There will be limits on what they can do, and people can plan for that. They can put that in their budgets. They know what to expect. The uncertainty of getting that notice, if you want to renew, all of a sudden it goes up exponentially. And you can say, “What am I supposed to do? Where am I supposed to go?” Those days are over. We took care of our tenants.

What about those predatory investors that are trying to steal your home with deed theft? We're coming after them as well. Your days are up. Forget about it. We've got you. Right, Mayor? Take them down. It's not just the City of New York. We're incentivizing mixed income affordable projects all over the State. We've got a lot to do. We're putting $500 million toward using State property. I have a lot of State property. Why aren't we using that to make housing possible for people? We're putting $500 million there to say, “Yes, we're going to be creative, innovative, and solve the housing shortage crisis.”

But also, I know that many of us — we're at 32BJ, 175,000 of your members are renters. A lot of them want to — they work here, but they can't afford to live here. That's what I'm talking about. Imagine a shorter commute, you don't have to come in from New Jersey. Okay, because I know you want to live in New York. I mean, we know that.

But you know what my friends? New Jersey has been building. Connecticut has been building. Pennsylvania has been building. And we didn't have the political will or the courage to get it done until this deal. This is when everything starts to change. And I'm so excited about this.

So, I'm going to say this: years from now, people will look at us. Do we do what the people of the State needed, to respond to their cries for help or did we turn a deaf ear? Are we there for them when they needed us most? Did we show that government has the capacity to deliver and to show our compassion for the people who are struggling in our State. That's who we're fighting for every single day.

So, when people ask, do we meet the moment? What's the answer, my friends? “Yes!” Well, do we build more housing? “Yes!” Do we make our State more affordable? “Yes!” Do we make our place more affordable for everyone in this room? “Yes!” Well, let's go forth and tell everybody, we got it done! Thank you!

And my amazing partner — we had so many meals together, and conversations, and late nights. The last person I heard late at night was either this woman or Carl Heastie. I love you all, but, okay. Enough. We got it done.