05/05/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/05/2026 08:32
Building on this historic investment in affordable housing, Governor Hochul's 2026 State of the State, the Governor proposed her Let Them Build agenda, a series of landmark reforms to speed up housing and infrastructure development and lower costs. This initiative will spur a series of common-sense reforms to New York's State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) and executive actions to expedite critical categories of projects that have been consistently found to not have significant environmental impacts, but for too long have been caught up in red tape and subject to lengthy delays.
The FY27 Executive Budget completes the Governor's current five-year Housing Plan to create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes statewide, including 10,000 with supportive services for vulnerable populations plus the electrification of 50,000 homes. More than 81,000 affordable homes have been created or preserved to date.
In addition to the Housing Plan, under Governor Hochul's leadership, HCR has also created new programs that jumpstart development of affordable and mixed-income homes - for both renters and homebuyers. These include the Pro-Housing Communities Program, which allows certified localities exclusive access to up to $750 million in discretionary State funding. More than 410 communities throughout the state have been certified Pro-Housing.