Housing, mental health and public safety among Gov. Hochul’s top policy priorities in NY State of State address

ALBANY — Affordable housing, mental health and public safety are at the heart of Gov. Hochul’s grand vision for New York’s future.

The Democratic governor, fresh off of winning a closer-than-anticipated election and securing a full term in office, outlined her policy goals and priorities in a sweeping State of the State address on Tuesday that detailed an ambitious housing plan and focused on creating economic opportunities and combating crime.

“My goals are straightforward and clear. We will make New York safer. We will make New York more affordable. We will create more jobs and opportunities for the New Yorkers of today and tomorrow,” Hochul said as she addressed a joint session of the state Legislature at the Capitol.

“We will open doors to the communities and people who’ve historically been blocked from equal chances at success.”

The governor’s post-pandemic plans include indexing the state’s minimum wage to inflation, expanding access to child care and increasing state funding for police and prosecutors.

As she has hinted for weeks, housing and rezoning were among the governor’s top concerns as she detailed some of the ways the state will incentivize the building of affordable housing to help reach her goal of 800,000 new units over the next ten years.

The plan, dubbed the New York Housing Compact, includes a mix of tax incentives, fast-tracking approval processes, expanding existing property tax exemptions as well as a revamped version of the lapsed 421-a program that encouraged developers to include affordable units in larger projects.

“Between full-on bans of multi-family homes and onerous zoning and approvals processes, they make it difficult — even impossible — to build new homes,” Hochul said of some suburban areas surrounding the city. “Think about that. People want to live here, but local decisions to limit growth mean they cannot. Local governments can and should make different choices.”

New home targets will be set by the state for areas that have historically fallen short on housing supply, specifically New York City suburbs in the Hudson Valley and on Long Island. Most will have a three percent new homes target over three year cycles and Hochul wants communities near transit or commuter lines to rezone for mixed-use, walkable developments.

Tenant rights groups panned the plan as too developer-centric and said it doesn’t do enough to protect current renters.

Hundreds of protesters journeyed to Albany to call for more robust tenant protections such as “good cause” eviction meant to help make the state’s rental market more tenant-friendly.

“Hochul’s housing plan uses a garden hose to solve a five-alarm fire,” Cea Weaver of Housing Justice for All said. “Her worn playbook has failed time and again to produce the kind of housing that we need and it does nothing to mitigate the pain that New Yorkers are facing now.”

The group were unable to access the Capitol as officials announced the building would be closed to the public less than 24-hours before Hochul’s speech.

To combat crime, Hochul is hoping to expand ranks and role of the State Police, provide district attorneys with more funds to hire prosecutors and increase funds for alternatives to incarceration and reentry services.

Hochul is also proposing changes to the state’s bail laws that would give judges more discretion when setting bail for serious crimes. The governor wants to eliminate the “least restrictive” standard for bail eligible offenses while retaining it for less serious crimes.

The plan could face serious pushback in the Democrat-controlled Legislature, where lawmakers have been resistant to the idea of again revisiting the bail laws twice that have already been twice amended since cashless bail was approved in 2019.

“I am willing to engage with the governor or whomever wants to have this conversation about bail reform as it relates to public safety, what I am not willing to do is to have a conversation that is based on anecdotes and scare-tactics,” Sen. Zellnor Myrie (D-Brooklyn) said following the governor’s speech. “Absent data, it’s going to be very hard, I believe, for us to move forward on a serious and authentic conversation.”

Additionally, Hochul is hoping to expand psychiatric beds and housing units as part of a $1 billion plan to bolster the state’s mental health care services. The blueprint calls for increasing in-patient psychiatric beds in the state by 1,000 and adding 3,500 housing units.

Under the plan, the Office of Mental Health would enforce the bed expansion by fining so-called Article 28 community hospitals up to $2,000 per violation per day for not complying with the number of beds outlined in their operating certificate.

Since 2014, the number of inpatient psychiatric hospital beds in the state has fallen by about 20% from 6,200 to 1,500. The goal comes after Mayor Adams in November unveiled a plan to involuntarily hospitalize homeless New Yorkers suffering from mental illness.

“I’m declaring that the era of ignoring the needs of these individuals is over. Because our success as government leaders is measured by our ability to lift up and support all our constituents,” Hochul said. “Today marks a reversal in our state’s approach to mental health care. This is a monumental shift to make sure no one falls through the cracks. The most significant change since the deinstitutionalization era of the 1970s.”

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