Build Homes. Cut Costs. Keep New Yorkers Here

February 26, 2026

Package of housing legislation designed to deliver affordable homeownership in New York

ALBANY, NY - Senator Rhoads joined Senate Republican Leader Robert Ortt, along with Senators Jack Martins, Pam Helming, and Mark Walczyk, members of the Senate Housing Committee, and members of the Senate Republican Conference, to unveil a comprehensive package of housing legislation designed to help New Yorkers build homes that are affordable in an effort to keep homeowners here in the Empire State.

The Senators were joined at a Capitol news conference by Humberto Lopes, Executive Director of Gotham Housing Alliance and CEO of HL Dynasty, a construction, investment, development, and management company with a portfolio consisting of residential, commercial, and industrial properties.

The package includes affordability incentives for first time homeowners and lowers the construction costs by removing regulatory burdens such as streamlining the environmental review process to build homes. The package aims to increase housing supply by establishing a task force composed of local government officials, state agencies, and other stakeholders to develop best practices for local governments to incentivize housing development. In addition, the package includes legislation that ensures rent controlled and stabilized housing goes to those who need it most.

“If you want 'affordability,' start with modifying property tax assessments. The same hand that raises my property tax eight years in a row tells New York tenants that I’m the reason for the unaffordable state we are in. The weaponization of property owners in this state is toxic and sinister. Change the way we assess property tax & that will directly affect our state from rents to groceries,” said Humberto Lopes, Executive Director of Gotham Housing Alliance and CEO of HL Dynasty.

“New Yorkers aren’t leaving because they want to — they’re leaving because they can’t afford to stay. This package is about restoring opportunity and common sense to our housing policies. By cutting unnecessary red tape, removing regulations and State policies that make housing more expensive to build and more costly to operate and creating real pathways to affordable homeownership, we can build more homes in locations that make sense, reduce the financial burden on families, and turn the tide on the affordability crisis plaguing our state. This Republican conference offers practical solutions that deliver real results — sending a clear message that New York’s best days are still ahead and ensuring the next generation can buy their first home, raise their families, and build lasting roots right here in New York,” said Senator Steve Rhoads, SD 5th.

Included in the package unveiled today are proposals that would:

Increase Housing Supply

S.538 (Martins) - Means test rent-controlled apartments to ensure that people who need affordable housing are occupying them.

S.3545 (Borrello) - Streamlines the environmental review process to make it easier to build more homes.

S.529 (Martins) - Establishes the local initiatives task force on housing, in order to collaborate with local government officials, state agencies, and stakeholders to develop best practices for local governments to incentivize housing development.

S.576 (Helming) - Create tax incentives for manufactured housing developers to build affordable homes in rural areas.

Homeownership Affordability

S.850 (Helming) – Provides a first-time homebuyer tax credit for local property taxes.

S.8489 (Weber) – Freezes real property taxes for three years to provide relief to New York homeowners. New York has some of the highest property taxes in the nation.

S.852 (Helming) - Give homebuyers who rehabilitate dilapidated properties an exemption from property tax reassessment.

S.9270 (Chan) – Establishes a new part of the housing court dedicated exclusively to buildings

35 units or less. The owners and tenants of these smaller buildings would benefit from faster

resolution of issues.

Lower Construction Costs

S.1167 (Mattera) - Repeal the All-Electric Building Act. The all-electric mandate will increase the cost of the average single-family home by about $20,000.

S.8621 (Mattera) - Allow building developers to comply with the less costly and less burdensome 2020 Energy Codes in lieu of the 2025 Energy Code. This would result in lowering the cost of an average single-family home by approximately $7,400.