Outmigration is New York’s biggest challenge. Despite the focus on other issues, like housing, criminal justice, public safety, and climate change – if the state does not address outmigration – other issues may not be relevant.
Governor Kathy Hochul says she understands that.
She has outlined a plan to promote greater housing density, despite opposition from some local governments, and to address the decades-long housing crisis. She believes that the state’s current problem is not a lack of good-paying jobs but a scarcity of places to live once someone takes a job. Her administration also cited that over the last decade, 800,000 more jobs were created than housing units, causing people to move to neighboring states where they can afford both their home and commute to work.
The governor’s plan for addressing the housing crisis includes massive investments in child care and health care, efforts to curb gun violence, building new infrastructure, and scheduled tax relief for small businesses and middle-class New Yorkers. She also plans to make the state’s university system a crown jewel and jumpstart the economic recovery by being the most business-friendly and worker-friendly state in the nation. Hochul believes that by addressing the housing crisis and creating more affordable places to live, New York can retain and attract more residents, reversing the trend of outmigration and population loss.
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