Earlier on Oct 16th, Governor Kathy Hochul celebrated the creation of about 71,000 new apartments in New York City, including 21,000 affordable units, thanks to an extension of the construction completion deadline for the 421-a tax incentive program. This celebration comes after letters of Intent were filed with the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development from owners that represent nearly 650 buildings. The 421-a construction completion deadline extension was part of a joint effort between Governor Hochul and the Adams administration to secure new tools to address the City’s housing crisis.

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 has photos of the event here.

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

Good morning, good morning. Any day we're talking about housing in New York City is a good day, right? We are on the cusp of so much explosive growth in our housing industry, and I'm so proud to be here with our leaders representing the Adams administration. We have Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer. I look forward to continuing our relationship — this is our third event together, we always do housing together. We've got some great announcements. You've been extraordinary and a great champion for new housing in New York City.

I think we were here in July of 2023. We announced a series of executive actions to jumpstart housing growth, and then, just this past February, what a great day it was in Gowanus. We had over 5,000 stalled units, so we've been working closely together. So, thank you and the administration for all your efforts to make sure that we build a more livable, affordable New York City.

Also, really proud to have our elected officials who've been acknowledged here today, but I want to give them a special shout out — our State Senators Brian Kavanagh and Kristen Gonzalez; our Assemblymembers Linda Rosenthal, Emily Gallagher, Alex Bores; Councilmember Lincoln Restler; and also, Rachel Fee who's been at our side as we negotiated the most complicated, most effective housing deal in over 50 years here in the State of New York.

You've been a tremendous partner, and I want to thank you. And, of course, Manny Pastreich of 32BJ who has been at our side, also, making sure that the working men and women of this State have a piece of the pie, and I want to thank him for his leadership as well.

When I first became governor, three years ago, I vowed to take on the housing crisis head on. A lot of people said, don't go there; it's hard; it's complicated; a lot of slings and arrows will be coming at you — but, I said, “I'm willing to take on the entrenched interest and the NIMBYs out there who understand we want to protect what they have but that shuts out too many other people.”

And, we had to cut through the red tape and the grinding bureaucracy that just made so many people say, “I just can't build here,” because we desperately need more housing in the State of New York and in the City of New York. And, people said, “Don't go there. You're going to lose.”

In my administration, we do things differently. I live by Teddy Roosevelt's philosophy about acknowledging it's not the critic who counts, but it's the man or the woman who are actually in the arena — sometimes getting bloodied, sometimes getting beaten down. But, you don't shy away from the hard battles because typically those are the ones that are truly worth fighting.

And the “play-it-safers” and the “keyboard warriors” don't tell us what to do. It only strengthens our resolve to get in that arena, stay in that arena, and continue fighting for the people of this State and for what we believe in — fight for what we believe in. And, I'll tell you what I believe in. I believe that teachers, and firefighters, and law enforcement and healthcare workers should be able to live in the communities they serve — that is a right that they should have.

I believe that young people — coming here with that excitement in their hearts, they leave a great college, come here to build their dreams, launching their careers — they should be able to afford a decent apartment. And, I believe that parents — raising their kids — should have the same neighborhoods for their children, so they can get acquainted with their grandchildren.

And, I believe that seniors who gave so much to their communities over their lifetime, living now on fixed income, struggling, should not be forced out of the places they spent their entire lives. These are the people I'm fighting for, and if you ask so many of them, “What is your number one concern? What are you worried about?” and it's just the phrase “affordability,” but also “cost of living is so high.”

What’s your number one expense? Here, in New York. Your number one expense?

[...]

Housing. It's your apartment, it's your rent, or, if you're fortunate enough to have a home, it is your mortgage. So, how do we get over that? How do we solve this crisis?

It is so simple, my friends. We build, build, build, build. We increase the supply. Now, I had some fights — not everybody agreed with me. We kept fighting and, as I said, we passed the most significant housing package in Albany in 50 years. And, one of the things we had to do was acknowledge that two years earlier, when the legislature allowed the 421-a exemption to lapse, and I was told by some people that people will build anyhow, the developers will build anyhow. They don't need this incentive, they'll just keep building without an incentive to build affordable housing. I said, “I don't think so. Not how it works.” But, we tested that theory, they tested that theory, and after two years, new housing permits and starts go down 85 percent.

That was another lost time frame. We could have been building more, trying to dig ourselves out of the hole that we're in instead of digging it even deeper. So, I stood up this year and said, “Okay, that didn't work. Are you with me now?” And, we tried to solve this.

Developers have relied on this since the 1970s. You know why they needed this in the 1970s? Because people didn't want to build then. The city was in crisis; spiraling; crime was up; financials, it was a disaster. Our finances were in trouble. We didn't know the future of New York City, so you had to incentivize people to build there.

So, why after a global pandemic, when people are starting to question is this the place to build and all the expenses going up, inflation going up, interest rates going up — why wouldn't we keep incentives in place to get people to do something that we benefit from? Affordable housing gets built this way.

So, I knew if we didn't at least extend the deadline — say, okay, let's pick up the pieces. Let's go at it again. If we didn't extend the deadline for applications for 421-a, products would dry up and come to a screeching halt, and we could not lose any more — not during a nationwide housing crisis, not with vacancy rates in the city of New York, hovering around 1.4 percent, the lowest since the 1960s.

People surrender before they start. Like I said, you have to take off the gloves. Some were with us, I appreciate the leaders who are with us, but a lot of people dug in. But, we said, at least let's get this an extension from 2026 to 2031.

And today, with that extension, you're seeing the results of that hard fought fight. And just in a few months, since the window opened for these extensions, for projects that already started — that were shut down, they were dead — now, we have received applications for the 421-a extension for 71,000 apartments, including 21,000 affordable units, over 650 buildings. That's just since this past summer when I signed it into law.

How extraordinary is that? That's what we're here to celebrate: 21,000 affordable housing units that were going to be dead and buried? That's home for more families — 21,000 homes for working class New Yorkers that children can grow up in. Single moms and people are taking care of their grandparents, their parents. Adults, recent graduates. Tens of thousands of people will be able to be free of the crippling stress that comes when rent is just too damn high.

And, people will finally say, “We have a place. We have a home.” And, this is just part of one piece of our grander vision: We create an incentive. Once that expires, and all those amazing units are built and glimmering in our sky, we have a replacement: 485-x. We also have a way to incentivize the conversion of office space into affordable housing. It makes so much sense. And, you just have to step back and say, “Why do we have so many barriers? Why? Why do we make it so difficult to do what other cities have done?”

When you think about why people leave New York State — I study this — top five destinations people go to if they're not staying here in New York: Florida and Texas — I can't speak for you, you have to deal with the weather. You'll be back. You'll be back. But think about this: The rest aren't leaving because of taxes or the weather here. It's New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Those are the top destinations. They have nice governors, too — I know them all. But, they're not New York.

So how are we losing this? How are we losing the race to build more housing to other states that are our neighbors? That has the same weather, same taxes, same environmental challenges — and more people want to be here. This is a failure of ambition that I will no longer tolerate, and have spoken on this for my entire time as governor. And, we'll continue working with the Mayor and his administration to break down all these barriers once and for all and say, “We will build here in New York.”

And so, other things, other challenges, housing density, a cap on housing density — Why? If we keep those in place, we're saying no to so many more people who want to be here. We had a face down opposition, but even to that, these are common sense initiatives, but we are successful. And now the City is running with the baton. We handed it off to you. And the Planning Commission recently approved zoning changes under the “City of Yes” housing plan. Thank you. Thank you.

And a number of those could not have happened if we didn't take action at the State-level first to say you have the power to do it. And that's the beauty of a relationship that works. And I also want to thank New York City for becoming a pro-housing community — a certified pro-housing community.

Now, you wonder what that means. Now, when I first went on my first go round with our housing initiative, everybody said “No, no, no sticks. We don't like to be beaten down.” Okay, what's your alternative? Give us a lot of carrots. So, those of you who may recall, I showed up at a press conference with the biggest carrots I could find.

These weren't those little ones that end up in a plastic bag and you don't really know if they're real or not. This is a big, big bunch of carrots. I said, “How about $650 million worth of carrots on the table?” We had become a pro-housing community. Now, at first, there were just a couple. I said “They're going to do very well, these local governments because $650 million, I'm dividing up among these top five.” Oh, boy. That got the competitive juices going.

I was just on Long Island yesterday and they're saying “No, hurry up and certify us, hurry up and certify us. We want some of that money.” The far reaches, Republican communities on the far reaches of Long Island are signing up for this. That's what it's all about when you refuse to take no for an answer, you find another path forward, and you are successful.

So the legislature and I have worked so closely together on this, making sure that we have this money available, it's discretionary state funding that'll go to communities, and now New York City has been certified, so you'll be getting a share of this as well with your application, so I want to close with this.

New York is the greatest state in the nation, and I believe it's because of its people. The people who stay here, and those who are drawn here — attracted to the energy and vitality and the life. I spend a lot of time walking around this city. You do not know it's me because I change baseball caps every night, and I have different sunglasses and a different pair of jeans.

But, that is me who just came over here over the weekend, took the ferry over, walked along Brooklyn Bridge Park — jaw droppingly beautiful — walked through our communities, went down to Lower Manhattan, took the ferry back over there, walked everywhere, ended up at Barclays, saw the Liberty win. That was a great game.

I'm out there all the time. I'm looking up at the sky. I want to see more building. I want to see more building because I want more people to have the joy of living here. And it's not easy. And it may not be for the faint of heart. But once you have decided you want to be a New Yorker, there's something exceptional about the experience.

And I want people to know that this can be and continues to be the Land of Promise, a place for anything, anything is possible. But I know you can't chase your dreams without a roof over your head. And for all those decades, people ignored the challenges. They didn't build. They just wouldn't take on the fights.

We're here for them today. That era is over. We are here to build. We fought the status quo. And today, as a result, and we're just beginning, 71,000 units will now be built. Everyone deserves that right to live with dignity and to become a New Yorker. Thank you very much.

With that, let me introduce First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer.