A lesson from Gov. Hochul’s failed NY housing plan: ‘Pretty please’ isn’t enough, lawyer says

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s ambitious proposal to build 800,000 new homes, to address a shortage blamed for inflating housing costs prices across New York, was left undone when the state Legislature recently wrapped up work on a new state budget.

That outcome came as little surprise to attorney Craig Gurian of the Anti-Discrimination Center of New York. Nearly 14 years ago his legal group won a novel court settlement compelling Westchester towns to build hundreds of affordable housing units, and met resistance at nearly every turn – not unlike Hochul’s failed plan.

WNYC’s All Things Considered host Sean Carlson recently discussed Hochul’s housing plan with Gurian, executive director of the ADC, which fights discrimination in housing, employment and education, through advocacy and litigation.

Their conversation below has been lightly edited for content. To hear the full conversation, click on the player.

Sean Carlson: You've said that this fight isn't really your typical partisan squabble…that it actually reflects a lack of will by both parties to take on residential housing segregation. What do you mean by that?

Craig Gurian: It’s certainly the Republicans' brand to be active in maintaining exclusionary zoning that keeps segregation in place, but I didn't hear Democrats in the Legislature speaking up very much at all to say that we really do need to break down these barriers.

Now, race was an issue in the Westchester litigation that you played a part in. You convinced the federal judge that not enough was being done in the suburban towns to further fair housing opportunity. Are the issues any different here in this situation?

I think they're very similar. The Westchester case was one example. There are many examples over decades and decades that there is tremendous resistance to affordable housing construction, especially affordable housing construction that has desegregation potential and there are lots of suburban officials who say, we like our residential segregation, just the way we have it. Thank you very much.

Now, Gov. Hochul fell short with this plan, but you've said her housing plan represented some of the biggest moves on housing in years. What would you say the governor got right in the plan?

Well, it really was the first time in 50 years in New York State where there was a very basic statement that you need to have some level of building everywhere and you need mandates. That the “pretty please” method doesn't work. So, it was really a change from the retrograde status quo that we've had both in New York City and in New York State as a whole.

Now, a leading Senate Democrat says that what is needed is more incentives for communities that may not want to build affordable housing voluntarily. What do you make of that incentivizing?

I think the word that's applicable is “delusional.” We've had decade after decade of incentives or requests or targets, and they never work. It's not like history started in January 2023. We know that the incentives don't work.

There can be funding, which can be usefully supplemental to building in terms of infrastructure that's needed in various localities. But the only way you're gonna get building is if everybody is made to build.

Of course, this plan did not get through this time, but no one would deny that we're in the midst of a housing crisis even. Given that we don’t have a plan now, where do we go from here?

I think a really crucial thing right now is that, unless Gov. Hochul is looking to be a lame duck for the next three and a half years, she needs to show the Legislature that there are meaningful executive actions that she can take that will change the facts on the ground.

There is a specific legal doctrine in New York State that allows building even when a locality opposes, when the state's interest is superior to the localities. Given the crisis, there's no question that the state's interest would be found to be superior, so I think that Governor Hochul should be using that doctrine.

It's called "County of Monroe" to work with developers to build affordable housing now, where there is the most resistance.