Can Andrew Cuomo Really Deliver On His Housing Promises?

With their state mired in a historic homeless crisis and budget negotiations underway in Albany, low-income New Yorkers and housing advocates are urging Governor Andrew Cuomo to back up various press releases, State of the State addresses and previous budget proposals by finally funding long-term affordable housing development.

The housing community contends that Cuomo—a former Housing and Urban Development secretary—has unduly shifted the cost burden to cities, obstructed the allocation of housing funds earmarked in last year’s budget and done little to assist the state’s 88,000 homeless residents—including roughly 60,000 in New York City’s municipal shelter system—as well as an estimated 1.5 million rent-burdened New Yorkers at risk of becoming homeless.