Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces More Than $125 Million Available to Upgrade Affordable Multifamily Housing in Upstate New York

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced more than $125 million is available to upgrade affordable multifamily housing in upstate New York. The State's new Affordable Multifamily Program Upstate (AMP Up) provides support for a wide range of cost-effective energy efficiency and electrification improvements in these residential buildings and serves as a one-stop shop to enhance building performance, deliver utility bill savings and improve comfort and quality of life for New Yorkers.

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:

 Hi everyone. It's great to be back at the Albany Housing Authority as well. We've been here before, and you just heard from one of the preeminent leaders in our nation when it comes to helping the public sector find a path forward to lift up all of our residents and to make the promise to our children, and their grandchildren and their grandchildren that we are invested, intensely invested here in the state of New York in a clean energy future. And people like Doreen Harris and all of her team at NYSERDA are doing an extraordinary job to fulfill my objectives, but should be the objectives of every resident of this great state. So let's give another round of applause to Doreen Harris.

One of the more challenging jobs anyone has in my administration is being Rory Christian, and I want to thank him for his continued perseverance to find the right path forward as we deliver energy options to our residents, but also with a lot of forethought from your team and yourself, and I want to thank you for being part of our administration. Let's give another round of applause to Rory Christian. You'll hear from Chiquita in a couple minutes with her enthusiasm and her passion for the work that she's doing. It is extraordinary - the work that you're doing to give people that promise, the dignity, the respect of having a wonderful, safe home over their heads, a roof over their heads. And so, you're the one making it happen, and we're really proud of the work that you do here as well. Let's give another round of applause to Chiquita.

Assemblymember John McDonald, who I see all the time because he really cares deeply about his constituents and all these projects and programs, and I'm glad he could come by and support us as well as Senator Pat Fahy, who's not here. They're, I believe they're in meetings right now. I'm not sure what they'd be meeting about this time of year, I don't know.

But it is great to be here. As Doreen said, securing New York's clean energy future is something that I take very seriously. This is personal to me as someone who came from an area that was not exactly an environmental shining light - Western New York, Buffalo, Lackawanna, the steel plants, the emissions that were making the air we breathe toxic. I literally, when I was much younger, I thought the sky was supposed to be orange. I didn't know it was blue because those were the colors, that was the color of the smoke coming out of the smokestacks every day, and no one questioned it because that's where dad worked, grandpa worked, uncles worked. Those were jobs, 20,000 jobs. Why would you question that? But also what it did to one of the most beautiful - previously beautiful - Great Lakes, Lake Erie, was extraordinary in terms of the degradation of the environment there, the lived environment for all of us in that community, and fortunately, those trends have been reversed, but also we are concerned today about the effects of climate change.

Look at the extreme weather forecast that you're hearing as soon as you turn on the television in the morning. More records are being shattered across the nation, including here in the state of New York. We have seen the most extreme weather, and I feel like I'm the master of disasters. I've been through the most snow, the most tornadoes in our state in a certain period of time, just a couple years ago, and the flooding and the hurricanes and the blizzards. And yeah, I know how to handle disasters every day, and a lot of it's driven because of our approach toward mother nature for many decades, and it's incumbent upon all of us as citizens of this planet to do what we can in our power to reverse that. But it's also focusing on a strategy that doesn't break the bank for New Yorkers who are looking at those utility bills coming in and just saying, "When is it going to stop going up?"

People are really, really struggling. And it's gas at the tanks, at the pumps, right now because of what's happening with the global conflict in the Middle East right now and how long that'll go, and just the cost of bills are just shocking to everyone. And I'm so focused on doing whatever we can to lift people up and to make New York more affordable, more family friendly, more business friendly, and part of it is how we tackle the costs that are driving up the cost of living here in this great state. So I want to make sure that we have an energy strategy that keeps the lights on, that ensures enough power to do what we need to do to continue meeting our objectives, but also holds down costs.

And as we mentioned, no one should have to choose between paying their bills and the groceries and the medicine and everything else, as they're doing. That's why I focused on announcing our Ratepayer Protection Plan, and it's designed to keep New Yorkers from the hidden fees on their bills. How many people actually read the bills? And if you did, you wouldn't understand it, anyhow. We want to change that dynamic so you know exactly what you're being charged for and to make it easier for eligible New Yorkers to have access to our energy affordability programs, and require the energy companies to prioritize efficiency and affordability.

So, we have so many costs going up - as I said, the gas at the pump - and it is getting really hard, and there used to be programs out of the federal government. The federal government used to actually play a role in helping the people of this country. I'll just say that. They walked away from that sense of responsibility. And there used to be a federal safety net that helped vulnerable populations and seniors and low income households pay their utility bills. That was part of a commitment from the federal government to its people. That commitment was shattered by the Trump Administration. They don't care. It's a callous attitude, and he called the program unnecessary - the President called it unnecessary. I stand here and reject that notion that helping vulnerable populations and seniors and low income individuals, they do need our help. And we, at the state, will have to again backfill to provide that assistance.

So I will use every weapon in my arsenal to do two things - as I said, lower energy bills and protect our environment. And one way we can do that is to make the places we live in more energy efficient as soon as possible. But it takes a long time to get this to happen. I was just in Troy at the construction site of the city's first zero-emission apartment building. It was exciting. It was exciting to see the possibilities using geothermal and solar and super insulated walls that'll create truly sustainable homes. It was the future. You know how long it took to get there? It took years and years more than it should have. So look at the lost opportunities and the extra bills that are being paid by someone living somewhere else, and the opportunity that was missed to help protect the environment.

So we want to make sure that all buildings can achieve these objectives, but they have a cost associated with them. So today I'm proud to announce a $125 million program managed by NYSERDA called AMP Up. Now, you asked the question, as did I, "What does AMP Up stand for?" Any of you have a guess? You'll never figure this one out. Affordable multi-family program, AMP, Up is for upstate. Okay? Real simple, right? AMP Up. AMP Up. And it's a real simple goal just to make as many homes as energy efficient as possible. The technology is there, but people don't have the resources to use those technologies. So building a new home is easier. As we're talking about the standards, we have what I just saw in Troy, we can do that, but what about the existing homes or people's bills are just too high?

So replacing old wasteful heating systems with state-of-the-art electric units, that'll help increase heating efficiency. We're talking about better insulation around the doors and windows to help bring down utility costs. You know what I used to do in Buffalo during blizzards? Run around and get all my towels outta the bathroom and roll them up and stuff them in front of the doors and sometimes hang them in front of the windows, right? With that plastic you had to put on with the blow dryer. Yeah, that was my house, so I know what I'm talking about. But all this is to keep the kids warm in those cold upstate winters. We had a rough year, but we need new ventilation systems to get us closer to our goal of zero-emission homes, and also it'll help with lowering costs to help make it easier to cool, heat and keep it at a consistent temperature.

For property owners, our improvements will overall reduce maintenance costs and reliability and making, basically overall, making upstate New York more affordable. This moves us closer to reaching our climate goals, but also, I want to make it easier. We have so many government programs and people say, "I didn't know about it. How do you access it? I don't have time to fill out the forms." I reject that in this administration. I'm coming at those challenges and I want to thank NYSERDA for the leadership that they're offering a complimentary concierge program. Doesn't that sound nice? Doesn't that sound nice? Give them a call, and see if they'll come over and iron your clothes and do a manicure, clean your room, make your beds. I don't know what they do, but they'll guide people through the process.

Just let's simplify government and its accessibility to our people. Let's just make life easier. And so, from application to construction completion, this is the way we're going to do it and I'm really proud of this program. And this is all on top of the $150 million we just announced this week to pay for heat pump installations for homeowners and small residential buildings across the state. We are making this happen. This is not being talked about. It's not a concept. This is real money going out to real projects. And so, these heat pumps, we know they'll lower the family's power bill, and you don't need gas to run them. And all of this is part of our $1 billion commitment to the sustainable future program that I announced last year, and we'll continue supporting that program this year.

$1 billion, over $750 million already committed to projects in less than a year. That is incredibly fast, and I want to thank you again for prioritizing this. So it's part of my all-of-the-above energy strategy that includes renewables like wind and solar. If the Trump administration would allow it to go back to the way it was - not holding my breath - but they literally crushed an industry that we've been investing in and excited about. And so, between wind and solar and offshore wind, in particular, they removed all the incentives. This is an expensive proposition for businesses, but when you remove the tax incentives to do this, you basically shut this down. And that is, to me, that is a crime and we'll do what we can to get around it. We'll try to do what we can with the existing contracts we have. Until there's a change in attitude or administration, this is how it's going to be. But I'm still vested in those projects.

Also, expanding upstate nuclear capacity and making sure that data centers pay their fair share. This is a huge drain for our ratepayers. It jacks up their costs, and I'm saying either you come with your own energy sources, you figure it out, there's opportunities, or you're going to have to pay your fair share. At the end of the day, our goal is simple - to keep the lights on, keep the grid reliable, and keep down costs for New Yorkers.

So help us get the word out about this program. Let them know about the fancy concierge program. Doreen's going to be there answering the calls, and "what can I do for you?" But I think it's going to be great for tenants, and I want to make sure that all of you know that this is just part of an ongoing effort from our administration and these committed public servants to just make sure we have the energy, make sure it's clean energy, and to make sure that we can deal with affordability all at the same time, and this program will do that. So thank you very much and let me introduce Chiquita to talk about, Chiquita D'Arbeau, to talk about how this is going to make an impact for the Albany Housing Authority. Chiquita.

Contact the Governor's Press Office