And now we're going to take you back to the Capitol, where this week members of the Assembly and Senate examine the housing portion of Governor hopeful's budget.

The issue of housing creation dominated the 2023 legislative session as the governor tried and ultimately failed to push through a comprehensive package that would have potentially doubled the rate of new home growth over the next decade.

This year, the governor is pushing a much more modest proposal, which was just one of the issues discussed at this week's housing hearing that was covered by New York.

Now reporter Shantel Destra.

As outlined in the governor's executive budget, communities who receive pro housing certificates will be able to access $650 million in state funding.

Last week, the governor hosted a roundtable with local leaders from 20 communities across the state who've opted into the program.

This is what they said they wanted.

They wanted carrots.

And we have $650 million of carrots to put on the table, literally, and to tell them that this is available to communities that are willing to do what is necessary.

So every corner of the state was saying this is going to help solve their problems.

The employers want to bring more employees in.

They don't have housing.

Young people want a place to live after school.

They don't have enough housing.

Seniors want to downsize and they don't have enough housing.

So from Poughkeepsie to Binghamton to Dunkirk, all over the state, the leaders have told us that this is the path that they want to be on.

And I want to inspire more communities to step forward and be part of this.

At the executive budget hearing on housing, some lawmakers offered pushback on the pro housing community plan.

Assembly Housing Committee Chair Linda Rosenthal that the definition of the plan seemed vague, pushing the state's commissioner of Housing and Community Renewal to provide more specifics.

Sure.

Is there anything specifically you'd want me to cover?

Just there's not much info.

Sure.

So there's three ways that you apply.

You submit a SO letter of intent.

You submit your zoning code and your zoning and your building permit data.

And then you either through your building permits, reflect that you've either grown, which is the third way to get certify that sort of third piece.

And if you haven't grown, then we would ask that you pass a resolution locally that has a series of sort of pro housing statements in it about reducing regulation to housing, wanting to grow your housing stock, that type of thing.

Those are the sort of three steps a community has to take to get certified.

Aside from the pro housing community plan, lawmakers pushed the commissioner on the 421 aid tax abatement program for developers, public housing and Section eight.

And some lawmakers argued there can be no housing plan without certain tenant protections, such as good cause and the Housing Access Voucher program.

Advocates agree, including CEO Weaver, a tenant organizer with Housing Justice for All.

There's a lot of support for good cause eviction, both within the legislature but also within the general public.

It's a really popular bill all over the state.

And the only reason that it wouldn't make it into the final budget is if the governor is working at the behest of the real estate industry.

We're confident that we'll be able to get something like good cause eviction done this year.

The question is what version of the bill?

And we really need to make sure that it's statewide and that no tenants are exempt from that from the proposal.

As budget negotiations continue, housing is likely to be a sticking point for the governor and legislature to be abl And we'll have more on the debate over the governor's housing proposal in the future, as well as additional coverage of budget negotiations this spring.

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