Governor Hochul: "Having a stable home, no matter how big or so small, but to call your own means everything to families … Tackling the housing crisis remains a key central priority of my administration and we had to make up for a lot of lost years, so that requires boldness. When I first became Governor, I said, ‘$25 billion to build over 100,000 units across the state’ … My friends, we worked hard and now, we're more than halfway there with more time to go. We have over 60,000 units and I'm really proud of that."

Hochul: "Back in January, I made a vow. I said, ‘Your family is my fight.’ Fighting for public safety, we got it done; fighting for more affordability initiatives. If you look at the details, it's up to $5,000 in people's pockets. That'll help pay the rent, that'll help pay the mortgage. But, as I said, there's fewer things in life more important than the stability of a safe home, and I want more people to have that key opening the door for the first time … because that's what this region deserves and I will fight to make that a reality."

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul secured new proposals to make homeownership more affordable for families statewide. As part of the FY 2026 Enacted Budget, Governor Hochul announced over $500 million in new state funding for housing that will help communities like Syracuse including investing $100 million for Pro-Housing Communities to fund critical infrastructure projects to support housing development, $50 million to promote mixed income housing development in Upstate communities, $50 million for the first year of the Housing Access Voucher Program to address households that are homelessness or at risk of imminent homelessness, and $50 million for building more affordable starter homes, among other housing initiatives. The FY 2026 Budget complements the Governor's historic housing package passed last year and her continued efforts to create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes in five years.

B-ROLL of the Governor touring one of the six newly constructed affordable single-family homes is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

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:

Good morning, good morning. Great to be back here. Have a little allergies - I'm fine; I feel perfect so don't worry about me. I'm loaded up on Zyrtec and everything else I could possibly find, but I feel great because I'm back in a community that I know and love so well.

This is a place that launched me on my career, Syracuse University - they still remember my activism and were probably very happy. In fact, the Chancellor saw me 10 years later at a reunion and he said, “Yeah, we couldn't wait until you graduated,” but that's all right, that's all right. I've had a fighter ever since, and I just want to - as I think about fighters - I want to take a moment here; we lost one of our champions this past weekend. I talked to Linda and Van Robinson was just a legend; his work - President of the City Council and bringing back the NAACP as a real force and there wasn't a social cause that he wasn't just so instrumental in driving. So, if we can just give a moment of silence for our great friend, Van Robinson.

[Moment of silence]

Thank you, thank you. Since I first became Governor, I put forth a bold vision for our state. I wanted New York to be a place where people could afford to live and call their home, and it's so important to me - and I said back in my State of the State, just in January, “A stable home is the foundation of a stable life.”

And I learned this firsthand growing up as I saw my parents ascend from their first home in a trailer park - tiny little trailer park. My brother was born, I came along a year later - Irish Catholics - and had a little tiny apartment for me, and then the family grew to six kids and my parents were able to get little places all along the way. But that was part of my journey and it's one I always reflect upon. And I often go back to the neighborhood where my parents started in that trailer park because there's people still living there, and there's a little diner I go to and sit there and talk to the neighbors and never forget where I came from.

Having a stable home, no matter how big or so small, but to call your own means everything to families. And they gave me more than a roof over my head - it gave me that security, that foundation that I was going to be okay and that's what families deserve. And I feel that dream for too many New Yorkers is just out of reach, and just finding a place - first of all, even an apartment - is hard. Finding a home you could afford, which is always the American dream, is almost impossible for so many and I find that to be tragic.

It was always an expectation when I was growing up: you work hard, you have a job, you're going to get there at some point, but we have not kept up with the ambition of what was required, which meant we should have been building more all along and communities who said, “No, we should have overcome that,” because now a generation is suffering - young people cannot find that first apartment, people cannot find that home.

So tackling the housing crisis remains a key central priority of my administration and we had to make up for a lot of lost years, so that requires boldness. When I first became Governor, I said, “$25 billion to build over 100,000 units across the state,” and I said, “We're going to get it done,” and I put a timeframe on it of five years. My friends, we worked hard and now, we're more than halfway there with more time to go. We have over 60,000 units and I'm really proud of that.

And a year ago after a lot of people saying it couldn't get done, we struck the most extensive housing deal in half a century with our State Legislature - and one thing I put forth was this idea that we would reward the communities that would have the ambition to build. And I'm really proud that Syracuse - under the leadership of our mayor - was one of the very first communities to step up and say, “I'm in. I will do this. I will meet your growth targets and be able to benefit from -” at the time, $650 million of money available statewide for communities that agreed to be pro-housing.

People told me everybody wanted carrots instead of sticks. A lot of carrots - $650 million worth of carrots. And it was interesting because at first there were only 20 communities that stepped up. I thought, “That's a lot of money for 20 communities,” and everybody started thinking, “Hey, what about us? What about us?” And now we have over 300 and more to go. So I'm proud of that. But this area has been particularly focused on this and this area has suffered from decades of neglect, disinvestment; but now - and you've seen this, there's so much happening here - I-81 is no longer a pipe dream, we're going to finally heal a community that was severed so many years ago, and I saw it firsthand as a Syracuse student. I didn't understand why we almost never went to this part of town. It was so close, it was right there, but it was two different worlds; it was wrong. And so many people, people who graduated and wanted to stay or people who've lived here all their lives.

But now we're at a new chapter, a new chapter with I-81 and we just announced the ON-RAMP in Syracuse, only four locations in the state, which is going to be a training center for the jobs of tomorrow. I'm so excited about that, but it's not like when I was growing up in Buffalo or knew about Syracuse and Rochester where you just hope the jobs come someday, maybe they'll come - they're coming, and Micron is going to be the catalyst for so much development here.

Excitement, investing in our community in a way that is profound. This will be one of the greatest achievements of any administration - to have the largest private sector investment in American history going on right now, and we fought hard to get it here and it's happening.

And here's why it is so important to build housing: more people are going to move here. People are going to discover this region, and when I was trying to - during our courtship with Micron, I spent a lot of time with the CEO and his principals talking about how magnificent Syracuse is - it's literally the heart of the State; and to the north you have the Adirondacks, and the beautiful St. Lawrence River and charming communities; and to the south and east west, you have Finger Lakes that are amazing - charming towns, vibrant downtowns, universities.

This is a place on the go and it's a quality of life that is second to none. I sold them on the quality of life here. They could have gone anywhere and they're about to. So I'm going to deliver on that, not just for them, but for the people who've never given up on Syracuse. The businesses who always believe through some tough times, a recession, a pandemic inflation, another recession probably coming. But we are tough and resilient here in Upstate. Are we not, my friends? We are as tough as they get.

But to be prepared for this transformation, we can't just say, “Oh, that's great. It's going to be wonderful.” You have to be ready for it. You have to take the steps. And again, housing is the cornerstone of this. And people, I want you to know - in New York City and all over are talking about this. This is fertile land for development. It's a place people are excited about, and I want to make sure that we build more housing so costs for working families start coming down. Simple economics 101, you build more houses, the prices come down.

I want people to know that there is a home waiting for them, and we're going to build 30,000 new homes in this area over the next decade. And we’re just starting. Just since I've been in office, $76 million already in grant programs and awards for Syracuse. And also downpayment assistance for families. It takes so much to scrape together that downpayment. And we have vacant properties that need to be restored. There should not be a single vacant property anywhere in Syracuse or this region because that is valuable land. Now let's turn it into housing; bring life back to it.

And we're redeveloping one of the very first public housing communities in our country, Pioneer Homes, let's bring them back to new life. And earlier today, I had the privilege of touring Home HeadQuarters’ Smart Housing Readiness Project. It's a long name, but here's what it is, it's housing for people who've never had it before. And this is made possible with over $8 million in State subsidies. And I see Teresa Durham here today, a grandma with her daughter and granddaughter, and Teresa, stand up for a second here.

I was able to tour this beautiful single family home. Has a little patio on the back. You can sit out there and look at the flowers growing in your garden. Invite your family over. She doesn't like to cook. I said, “That's okay. I don't either.” A lot of good takeout - pizza at the Varsity is really good, I used to work there.

But to be able to hand her the keys to this home - she's a grandma, it's the first time she's ever been able to own her own home. She was crying, I wanted to cry, because this is transformational - not just for a region, but for people. That's who we're doing this for. For real people. Give them a chance. Let them know they matter. They have value to us and that's so important.

Just a few months ago, the house looked like just a jumble of two by fours, and now this is the first of six here and there'll be over 40 homes in this area with this support, and this is just getting started. So Teresa will be able to welcome her family, have cookouts in the backyard, meet the new neighbors who also will be very excited about this. And I really believe that these investments are so important because it's not the dollar amount, it's the people that we're serving.

So I've doubled down in our Budget on Syracuse's future. As we build more housing and welcome more people, it's really, really, really important that we have first-rate medical care for everyone. That's why in this Budget, I'm announcing $450 million to redo the emergency room at Upstate Medical Center. Thank you for all you do at Upstate.

So Theresa should be able to welcome her family, have cookouts in the backyard, meet the new neighbors - who will also be very excited about this. And I really believe that these investments are so important. Because it's not the dollar amount, it's the people that we're serving.

So I've doubled down on our budget on Syracuse's future. As we build more housing and welcome more people, it's really important that we have first rate medical care for everyone. That's why this budget, I'm announcing $450 million to redo the emergency room at Upstate Medical Center. Thank you. Thank you for all you do at Upstate.

We had another dollar amount in the budget to get started. And I went and toured and I saw, not just the incredibly dedicated staff, but I saw the patients, lined up in the hallway. They're doing the best they can in a tough circumstance. And I said, "Let's not delay this any longer. Let's give them what they need. Let's get it done. Let's show this area you can pride in first rate healthcare in a world class facility."

Then it says this region has arrived. And I want to thank everyone who fought so hard for that. And that's just the beginning, but there's more. We're going to allocate $3 million for infrastructure development at Lafayette Hills, this is for sewer improvements to turn a former golf course into 240 units of new housing. I want to thank the mayor. This is one of his top priorities. Thank you, Mayor Walsh.

Let's invest more - $2.3 million for the Onondaga Hotel Project; let's bring that property back to life - great big vision for that. And to make sure that we can support both the infrastructure for the new technology and the new businesses that are coming and our homes, we also secured $116 million in upgrades for the Onondaga Water Authority which is going to make a difference.

So, this is how we'll meet the demand for thousands of employees as well as our businesses because our infrastructure, the lack of, maybe you don't think about it a lot. I'm a former local government official. We are obsessed about what's under the ground - the water and sewer lines, and if you don't have them, you don't grow; it's that simple. So I want to make sure that there's no barriers to the continued growth of this region.

And these aren't standalone projects. They work together as a foundation for long-term growth plan for this region. And it shows what's possible when we plan - not just plan, but you plan with a purpose. You're on the same page, you're working together toward a common cause. And so overall, I want to have this happen all over. We have over $500 million statewide for new housing, and as I mentioned, we're adding even another $100 million dollars to the $650 million for the pro housing families so they'll benefit even more.

Part of that is for more mixed housing, part of it's to help people have improvements to existing homes. That's so important. But also build starter homes. I want more starter homes out there. They don't have to be huge. My first apartment was 600 square feet. I thought I hit the jackpot when I had a house that was 1,200 square feet - “Oh my God. I just doubled my space.” Of course, we had four people in our family. It was a little tight, but that's all right. We were very close family, literally very close family.

But also for homeowners who are struggling, $40 million for legal assistance and counseling. Because not everybody knows how to get through the complications of home ownership. But here's another challenge to people buying homes. You have these private equity firms that are swooping in and buying up the housing and they're paying cash. Young families out there, being turned down after, turned down - after all these houses they look at and they make an offer on, and they're being beat out by these huge corporate interests. And so I'm changing the law to take away the inherent advantage they have and saying you have to wait 90 days if you're going to bid on a one or two family home. That's how you give an advantage to our people. Our first time home buyers.

So back in January, I made a vow. I said, “Your family is my fight.” Fighting for public safety, we got it done; fighting for more affordability initiatives. If you look at the details, it's up to $5,000 in people's pockets. That'll help pay the rent, that'll help pay the mortgage. But, as I said, there's fewer things in life more important than the stability of a safe home, and I want more people to have that key opening the door for the first time like we did for Theresa. Because that's what this region deserves and I will fight to make that a reality. Very proud to come back to Syracuse and thank you everyone, because we are just getting started.

Kerry Quaglia, I want to introduce you and thank you for what you're doing, Kerry, for doing such a great job and being one of the visionaries behind this effort, we can't do without people like you. So come on up, Kerry.