Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Delivers Keynote Remarks at the New York State Affordable Housing Conference

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul delivered keynote remarks at the New York State Affordable Housing Conference.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

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

Thank you. Thank you everyone.

First of all, direct that applause to the woman who just spoke. She is my hero. RuthAnne Visnauskas is a champion and a real driver of change, and the state is forever better off and her legacy will endure. And not just the buildings we see, but the people's lives that have been changed. So I want to thank her and everyone who's part of the extraordinary organization, HCR, for all their tireless work.

Jolie, I want to thank you for the invitation. I've seen you everywhere as well and I appreciate your strong advocacy, especially in Albany. We've been on the same side of a lot of fights against institutional bureaucracy and people who don't like change. That it's fearful and terrifying to have a — my god, a new building go up in your neighborhood. Oh my gosh.

So we've had to do a lot together and I appreciate that. And the Chair of our Housing Finance Committee here is Steven Weiss, someone I've known for decades. Someone who is so passionate about giving people the dignity of a new home. And I think about someone who's once lived in the house I'm able to live in, in Albany. Not exactly affordable housing, I'll admit right now.

But Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Do what you can with what you have, where you are.” That's what all of you do every single day. You are the doers who are making a difference in your communities and all over this state. And as the Governor, I'm so proud that we have this organization harnessing the power of all of you as a driving force.

And your 25th annual conference — is why I didn't want to miss this, to make sure that I could celebrate a quarter century of accomplishment, but also what you'll do ahead. You're the ones in the trenches doing the hard work, securing the approvals from all the government entities that you have to deal with, and I know how hard that can be.

I guess I would say this — we were achieving the goals that I set forth back in January when I laid out my State of the State Address. I said, “A stable home is the foundation of life, and every New Yorker deserves that.” You know I've been fighting. Thank you.

I guess I would say I was born to fight for affordable housing. I just went back to the neighborhood this past weekend — Mother's Day back home in Buffalo. Lackawanna to be exact, where I was born. My parents started out in a Lackawanna trailer park in the shadow of the Bethlehem Steel Plant where my father worked and his father worked, and his brothers worked.

These are hard jobs, but they helped pay for that first little trailer. It was tiny. My brother was born there. I've heard some stories that he actually slept in one of the drawers in the cabinet because there was no room for a crib. I came along not long after — Irish Catholic family, what do you expect?

And found our home in a little tiny apartment again, even closer to the steel plant in Lackawanna. But I could track my family's success based on the housing they lived in. First a trailer park, then that little apartment. Then dad was able to get a college degree while he was working at the steel plant.

And was able to get a little bit of those little starter homes as we had five or six kids — family of eight finally packed into one house, and I knew we had made it. Not that I had my own bedroom, had to share it with two brothers, didn't have any heat. We lived in the attic, but it was our house. It was our house. It meant something.

So I know about the security that that can give someone. It gives you hope. It gives you that chance to say, “We're going to make it.” We're going to make it. But what pains me is that too many New Yorkers today don't have that dream. It's too far out of reach and housing is just a huge source of stress for them.

Can they even afford an apartment? That young person who just got out of school, nothing they want more than is get out of their parents' house. And they're living on the basement couch because it's just too expensive where they're packed in a tiny place with lots and lots of their friends. It's okay if you start like that, because you know you're going to get out of it, but this generation is not sure they're going to get out of it and that's hard.

They deserve to have the same dreams that we had. The cost of rent is too high. Why? You've heard me say this since my first days as Governor, as I fought for an ambitious housing plan — you don't build supply, the prices go up. It's supply and demand 101 — basic. And we as a state succumb to all the barriers and all the challenges, unlike other states. I mean, New Jersey had more ambition than we did building more housing. Connecticut built more housing, Pennsylvania built more housing. Why didn't we build more housing that's affordable in our own state?

Because we're the place people want to be, you know that. There's so much demand. That era has changed. We have the vision. We have the boldness to challenge and break down all the barriers that lie ahead of us.

My concern is also what's happening in Washington. Anybody else worried about Washington? They're gunning to cut billions of dollars of housing assistance. And we're doing our very best here, but that puts millions of families across our nation at risk. It'll hurt families here in New York. And I said, “I'll fight hard.” We need our legislators, our Congress members to fight hard, especially the Republicans who have the majority right now. But also I said, “We're going to have an ambitious plan.” RuthAnne and I worked on this the very first days: a $25 billion plan — to show we are serious — to build over 100,000 affordable housing units over five years.

I said, “RuthAnne, are we going to get there?” She goes, “Yeah, we're going to get there.” We're getting there. She told you we're more than halfway there. I'm proud of that. And we're way ahead of schedule, which you don't always hear in government, so give that a round of applause.

But we're not done yet. And a year and a half ago, I pushed hard for what the New York Times called the most ambitious housing plan in over 50, 60 years. And we worked hard. We got some of it done, some fought back, weren't ready for the change, they didn't want to be told what to do. I get it. Keep your zoning, I guess, but that's why we're not growing, that's why your kids aren't growing up near you on Long Island or in the Hudson Valley. “You're not going to see the grandkids,” said that to a lot of people. But I don't mind a fight. I have on the wall, my beautiful office up in Albany that I don't see very often, Teddy Roosevelt's, “The Man in the Arena.” You ever see that? You can buy it on Etsy where it says “The Woman in the Arena.” You can have it framed. It looks really nice.

But it's not the critic who counts. It's the man or woman who's actually in the arena getting bloodied and marred, willing to take on the fight. And they may not always win. They may not always know the highs of high achievement, but they'll know that they're never on the sideline with the timid souls who wouldn't even engage in the fight.

I don't mind a fight. I know who I'm fighting for. I'm fighting for people in this state. And I'll keep breaking down those barriers.

And I challenged our legislators last year to lift so many of the draconian barriers to construction of new housing, new affordable housing. We worked hard. Even something like 421-a, it's been here since the ‘70s, it was part of the recovery after our financial collapse back at that time. And I said, “If you let that lapse, people aren't going to build.” They didn't believe me. It lapsed, people didn't build.

I went back two years later and showed them the data, said, “At least give it a six year extension.” I wanted longer, but at least give it six years. Let's get another plan in place. You have to have incentives to do it. I said, “These are good people, but if you don't make it worth their while, it's all going to be market rate and how are we really serving the people who need us the most?” So we got a lot done.

We have built over 71,000 homes. I'm going over to Gowanus as we leave here. A woman is going to be handed her keys by the Governor. I'm going to walk around and see her new apartment, help her unpack and welcome her to her new home. That happened because we got it done, and I cannot wait for more families to know the joy of that.

And then the city here, the ‘City of Yes.’ Great concept. I got a call late one night from the Mayor. The Mayor needed something. “Well, what do you need, Mayor?” “I need a billion dollars.” “For what?” “City of Yes — I have to get it over the finish line. I can't get it to the city council, but I need your help.” He had me at hello. When you tell me you're building more housing, the answer will always be yes. We got the billion dollars done. That's over 80,000 homes we built.

We are repurposing existing state sites. I looked around the state, said, “We have a lot of property here, right?” Everywhere. I said, “Why don't we use some of our state owned property to build affordable housing. I don't have to worry about zoning, don't need as many approvals. We can get it done.” Over 15,000 units we built on state owned land. And then as I mentioned, we had a little trouble in our suburban areas — they didn't want to be told that they had to build more housing.

They said, “can you give us some carrots instead of sticks?” Sure. I got a gigantic batch, not those little tiny carrots to get plastic bags. I mean there were big sized carrots. And I put it on the table.

I said, “Here's $650 million worth of carrots. You become a pro housing community. Agree to growth targets, and I'll make sure that all the funding that you ever wanted is going to be available.” Whether it's our Downtown Revitalization, our Main Street programs, our Restore New York programs, all the ways we have state dollars that are discretionary. I bundled it together and said, “Now you have to earn it”. At first, there were only 20 communities across the State of New York that said yes, and I went back and I said, spoke to supervisors on Long Island and the Hudson Valley and all over.

I said, “You know what? $650 million divided among 20 communities is a lot of money. You sure you don't want to join them? Well, now we have over 300 and I added another $100 million to that.” So we're building on that momentum.

So we have a lot of work to do, but so do you. Don't take so long at lunch. I want you to get out there and build because I believe in this and we doubled the Low Income Housing Tax Credits to $30 million because I knew we needed more. And we extended the eligibility for our historic tax credits because I knew we needed to get that done, and reallocating another $20 million to preserve affordable housing all over here. All because you've asked for it and you said you needed it.

I know we have high insurance costs. We're going to continue to tackle that. We're going to provide money for insurance for non-profits, but also continue doing everything we can, including a housing voucher program. The first time we've done this, we put real money on the table for people at risk of becoming homeless because they cannot even afford to make the payment for an affordable unit. Those vouchers will be a game changer for many New Yorkers who come up short, they deserve better, and when it's up and running, we'll figure out how to go forward. So together all these investments this year, $1.5 billion investing in our housing future because if we don't make the investments now the next generation will say, “Why didn't they have the boldness? Why didn't they have the ambition? Why didn't they just build?” Because this is a great place to live and to work and raise your families. There's nothing like us and you know it. But if you plan with purpose and you focus on an end goal, get it over the finish line into the end zone.

Any Buffalo Bills fans out there, other than Steve Weiss? Alright, I'm working on you. I'm working on you. I am a Knicks fan though. Does that count? Buffalo hasn't had a professional basketball team since 1972 and I used to watch them, but I love the Knicks and they're doing great.

But thank you. Thank you. Thank you for what you do. You've dedicated your lives and your careers to doing something that is so exceptional, so priceless to me — focusing on finding all the ways to build people who have trouble struggling with life, and its hardships, giving them the dignity of a wonderful home. And I'm so proud of that. And I know we're going to do more and I'm going to be there. My administration will be with you side by side to get it done, because this is a cause worth fighting for and each and every one of you know that that's why you're here today. Thank you very much.