While Mayor Eric Adams and the city council often talk about building more affordable housing, the real power is in the hands of Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is trying to forge ahead with a housing plan after suffering a major setback earlier this year.

Hochul needed buy-in from the suburbs, leaders in the city, unions and so much more—her ambitious housing proposal was so big that it failed.

This year she’s going back to the drawing board, solo, and with a lot of the same pieces from the prior package.

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take’ — I took the shot,” Hochul said back in April, after her housing proposal did not pass in the state’s $229 billion state budget—green-lit nearly a month after its intended deadline.

She wanted to solve New York’s housing crisis. Pledging to pass a plan that would build 800,000 new homes within 10 years — and half of those to be located in the Big Apple.

Roughly two-thirds of tenants in the city are renters, and most can agree: their rent is too high and there’s not enough affordable apartments.

But Hochul and her fellow Democrats in the state legislature could not strike a deal.

“So, we were creating about 20,000 units a year over the last couple of decades,” Zach Steinberg, Senior Vice President of Policy at trade association, the Real Estate Board of New York, said.

“And we think based on looking at data from the Department of Buildings and Building Congress…is that we’re on track for about 11,000 new housing units to get started this year.”

REBNY blames the legislature for refusing to renew or replace 421a, the now-expired incentive program favored by developers. Should builders include affordable housing units in new projects, they’d get property tax breaks under the program.

“The absence of this program has really led to a serious decline in the number of housing units we’re creating,” Steinberg said.

REBNY argues that program is the best way to build new units. But opponents argue the state shouldn’t be giving away that valuable tax revenue, especially to special interests headed by people who donated to Hochul’s election campaign.

“They’re greedy and they want their money and the governor wants to go along with REBNY,” Sen. Jabari Brisport said. “I think we can do much better by directly having government invest in creating new affordable housing through, like, a social housing model.”

Brisport rallied alongside advocates from Make the Road New York, who marched from REBNY’s office on Lexington Ave to Hochul’s Midtown office, arguing that the governor needs to pass a slate of policy measures including raising taxes on wealthy New Yorkers and increasing tenant protections. The group is promoting their platform, starting with a $10,000 ad buy.

Critics say that Hochul’s proposal last year was too broad, and she didn’t gather enough allies to push it across the finish line. So this year, she’s going solo.

Hochul already set aside $650 million in tax breaks for affordable housing developers. Revealing a deal for a project in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood in July 2023.

“This is exhibit A of what happened when the legislature did not reauthorize, 421a or this year when we simply asked them to grandfather, give an extension for those approved projects. Because what happened in the meantime, interests went up, capital went up, it was hard to get lenders,” Hochul said at the time.

“Like 73% of New Yorkers, Gov. Hochul believes housing affordability is a major problem. The housing crisis is pushing New Yorkers out-of-state to Connecticut and New Jersey that have built thousands more homes over the last decade than New York has,” said spokesman Avi Small in a statement provided to NY1.

“That’s why Gov. Hochul proposed the boldest plan in a generation to drive down housing costs by building more supply. After the Legislature flatly rejected it and failed to introduce a viable alternative, Gov. Hochul refocused her efforts on sweeping Executive Action that took effect in July. Until the Legislature is ready to come back to the table with a serious approach to build more housing in New York, the Gov. is focusing on using her executive powers to address the housing crisis,” he added.

A group of lawmakers think Hochul should back the “good cause eviction” bill, empowering tenants across the board, be it market rate to stabilized units, fight rent hikes and evictions. Opponents argue it kneecaps landlords.

Plus, all 213 members of the legislature are up for reelection next year, so it’s unlikely they’ll get behind controversial policies that could upset job security.

“One of the things that I think we saw a lot in the last several years is very long lines for every time an apartment was available, and people to look at and we’d expect that to continue to happen,” Steinberg said.