In her State of the State address this week, Governor Kathy Hochul shared her budget priorities, reflecting a much more modest approach to housing following a final FY25 budget that included a package of policy changes to spur housing supply across the state.

New York Housing Conference views this announcement as complimentary to last year’s budget but the housing crisis is an emergency and should be treated as such. NYHC will continue to advocate for policies to increase housing supply and ensure all New Yorkers have a safe, affordable home.

There are not yet enough details available to understand impact of these proposals and NYHC will provide analysis when the Executive Budget language is released. You can read the full list of proposals in the State of the State Book.

Housing Supply

Supporting Pro-Housing Communities with a $100 million Pro-Housing Supply fund to assist Pro-Housing Communities with addressing critical infrastructure needs related to new housing such as water and sewer upgrades.

New grant funding is proposed to offer technical assistance to communities looking to design and adopt pro-housing policies.

Streamline Environmental Review for Modest Housing Development by allowing certain multi-family housing no more than 10,000 sqft to move forward as “Type II.”

Mixed-Income Revolving Loan Fund to spur mixed-income rental development outside of NYC.

Double New York State Low Income Housing Credits (SLIHC)

Expand New York State Historic Tax Credit by decoupling from the Federal credit and removing census tract eligibility requirements.

Encourage Redevelopment of Vacant Properties by strengthening municipalities authority to acquire vacant and abandoned buildings and proposing a tax exemption to incentivize redevelopment into affordable housing.

Increased Funding for Supportive Housing
The Governor said she will propose increased funding to the Homeless Housing and Assistance Program (HHAP), the Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative (ESSHI) and the New York State Supportive Housing Program (NYSSHP).

Maintaining Affordability

Increase Access to Insurance Captives by providing assistance to nonprofit affordable housing owners to take repairs and other steps needed to meet eligibility standard for participation.

Reduce Shelter Rent Taxes for Mitchell-Lama Residents by at least half in New York City and allow for the same by local opt-in in the rest of the state to help address escalating increases in insurance, utility, and taxes.

Ban Collusion Using of Algorithm-Enabled Rent Price Fixing to protect tenants from rent increases driven up artificially by real estate management software

Extend Security Deposit Protections to Rent-Regulated Tenants
2019 laws require the return of remaining security deposits within 14 days of vacating the unit and allow tenants to request an inspection to determine what needs to be remedied to receive a security deposit back in full. Rent-regulated tenants were erroneously left out.

Expanding and Preserving Homeownership

Provide Starter Home Innovation Funding to support innovative approaches to homebuilding such as the use of factory-built and modular development.

Support First-Time Homebuyers’ Down Payment Assistance with new state funding

Create an Affordable Homebuyer Tax Incentive that localities can opt into to bring down costs and increase the supply of houses built with assistance from governmental entities, nonprofits, land banks, or community land trusts and sold to low- and moderate-income homebuyers.

Disincentivize Bulk Purchases of Homes by Institutional Investor by proposing legislation to create a 75-day waiting period in which certain institutional investors cannot bid on single- and two-family homes.

Strengthen Laws and Policies to Combat Home Appraisal Discrimination