B-Roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces Completion of $98 Million Affordable Housing Development in Suffolk County

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the completion of Matinecock Court, a nearly $98 million affordable housing development in the town of Huntington, Suffolk County. The newly-constructed development creates 145 affordable limited-equity cooperative homes, including eight supportive apartments reserved for individuals with disabilities and four apartments reserved for veterans. Under Governor Hochul’s leadership, New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) has created or preserved more than 2,500 affordable homes in Suffolk County. Matinecock Court continues this effort and is part of Governor Hochul’s $25 billion five-year Housing Plan, which is on track to create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes statewide.

B-ROLL of the Governor at the Matinecock Court ribbon-cutting ceremony can be found on YouTube and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

 It is always great to be back on Long Island, especially Suffolk County — really, especially Suffolk County. I want to thank my friends here who've always made me feel so welcome and have never hesitated to tell me what your needs were, and made sure I always leave — even if I came with a check, I left with a list for 10 more. But I would do the same.

I spent 14 years in local government, and we did not have governors come through our community ever. And I knew it was important that I show up, and showing up for all of you has been a privilege to represent you and to get to know your elected leaders and our appointees.

And I think about one of my best decisions was to ask Kevin Law to be the Chairman of Empire State Development. I wanted to send a message that I would bring in someone who is pro-business; who understood the power of state government to invest in projects, bring ideas to me; but also, I wanted Long Island to see that they had someone with a seat at the table in my administration that was influential.

So let's give another round of applause — our Chairman, Kevin Law. I want to thank your County Executive for putting aside politics to do what's right for his constituency, and that means we're working together on housing and working together to overcome situations when we've had natural disasters, of which you've had far too many. And I thank him for just always helping us figure out solutions to transportation problems and new investments that we can and should be making. I look forward to partnering with your County Executive, Ed Romaine, for many more years to come. Ed Romaine.

My OPWDD Commissioner Willow Baer is here. I want to thank her for all the work she does to open up housing for people of needs, and I think she's doing an incredible job. Ruthanne Cooley, the president of the NAACP, and, of course, our host here today, Peter Florey — amazing developer. I've seen the caliber of his projects, and they are second to none. Now, he asked me if I'd come to this a long time ago. I said, "I will be there." So thank you, Peter, for the incredible work that you do here and throughout the state. And Pilar Moya-Mancera, the Executive Director of Housing Help — thank you.

I have one thing to say: Long — actually, I have more than one thing. I shouldn't say that. I have a lot of things to say. But perseverance is the word I think when I think about this project. We had people who never gave up. They had a vision so many years ago when others just saw obstacles, and people powered through it.

So the saying is that good things happen to those who wait. We shouldn't have had to wait so long. But, this launched, I think the concept goes back to 1978. People first started talking about this in 1978. None of you were born then. It's amazing you’re all so new. Jimmy Carter was President. The Bee Gees were on the radios. Okay? Remember them? Now they're at oldies nights. And right here in East Northport, all those decades ago, a vision was born to do things better and help families.

And finally, all these years later, that dream is being realized. And it's not just about this project, but it's a symbol. It's a symbol of the past, of why it took so long. But today, as we go forward, I want this to be also a symbol of the future, a new attitude about housing, and the value that housing brings to communities who their resistance was so misplaced, so ill-founded to create all these hassles to let a project like this… so people can have the dignity of a roof over their heads where they feel safe, and to have a family.

Look at — I'm a grandma. I look right away at the playgrounds. And this is a great playground. And housing is so deeply personal to me because my parents used to live in a trailer park. They were not the nicest side of the tracks. And they overcame. My dad worked at the steel plant. My mom was home taking care of my brother who was a year older than I was.

When I came along, they moved into a tiny little apartment right in the shadow of the steel plant. And my grandparents lived in the same town — 10 people in a two-bedroom house. [The] Irish had a lot of kids. But it was two bedrooms and the attic was like a dorm, unheated, just a lot of rows of beds lined up for all the boys — a lot of boys.

And to me, where you lived was a statement about how you felt about yourself sometimes. And when you had the dignity of getting nicer houses as time went on and life was good, it just was a kind of a statement. And it hurts me — and I just make a different observation here — it pains me to think that there are so many people, young people who don't think they're ever going to have that chance of even having a decent apartment, but much less homeownership.

And I feel it is so important to give these young people the hope, the hope that their parents and grandparents had, that if you work hard, you play by the rules, you come to a great place like Suffolk County, you have that possibility. So the more supply we build in the housing, we drive down costs. It's simple supply and demand.

But for apartments like these that take care of people who just need a little extra help, a little extra love, a little compassion, and for those with disabilities and those who need — the veterans we support in other projects, this is a statement of who we are as New Yorkers. This represents — this project represents our values to our core, and that's why I had to be here today to send a message all across the state that this is how they do it on Long Island.

We are looking prospectively at the future. The past is behind us. It was a long, long past that never should have taken so long, but here we are today. So I want to make sure we get this project over the finish line. We had to get our state agencies to work closer. We contributed more than $80 million — yes, that's another big check I brought to Long Island — $80 million to get the buildings done, but now we have 145 new affordable homes right here on Long Island. And those who—

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We have units reserved for our veterans because many of them have seen the ravages of war that had a long-term effect on them. It became difficult to come back here. I spent a little bit of time over in Afghanistan during the height of the war, and I'll never forget when I sat at a roundtable of veterans — well they weren't veterans at the time, they were active duty — in Helmand Province, asked them what their biggest fear was, and I thought it'd be the Taliban right out the door.

It was just terrifying to be there. And I just went, I was on the Armed Services Committee. And they said, no, their biggest fear was coming back and not finding a job and not having a home. That's what our active duty military had on their minds.

So when they come back, we owe them whatever they need. It's our moral responsibility as a society, as a country, as a state, to answer those needs so we can build housing for veterans and people with disabilities and people that just need extra help because their incomes make it so difficult.

This is a great day for Long Island, and that's exactly what we achieved here.

And I want to just thank the NAACP and Housing Help for never giving — never giving up the faith. And that's what it's all about.

I won't quote it exactly right because I used to have it memorized, but the arc of justice is long — Dr. Martin Luther King. Sometimes it takes a while to get to justice, but you never give up on justice and fairness and doing what's right, and that's what today's all about.

So you fought, you won, and I am so proud to be here today to also welcome a resident here, Janaya Silva, the first resident to move into this beautiful project. She spent years searching for an affordable home for herself and her four children, and she finally found it here. Please stand up. Just let us acknowledge Janaya.

You and your family offer hope to others, and that's what I'm going to continue building. And thank you for being here and I'm so glad you found your home. And that's what, when I say your family is my fight, that's who we're fighting for — families like this all over our state.

So we announced a $25 billion housing plan to preserve 100,000 units when I first became Governor. Guess what? We exceeded our goal ahead of schedule. So now going back to the board for the next five-year plan, and I'll probably put even more money behind it. Got to tell that to my Budget Director — I’ll just tell him I announced that. But we're not slowing down.

And I'll just say we've had a lot of barriers, not just in communities, but sometimes in the State Legislature. And something like the SEQR law, which made sense in 1995 when we needed to protect our environment, we still do and we always will. But that added two more years to every single state housing project — two more years to comply with state laws that I think have become obsolete and outdated, and also adding cost to each unit.

So, what did we do? We took it on. A lot of people said, "Don't go there. It's tough." Those are the fights I say bring on. And I'm proud that we are successful and be able to eliminate, in many cases, the requirements that are so onerous for so long because when I say I want people to build, I don't want anything we do to be in your way.

I want the development community to hear it loud and clear from me: We're just getting started, and I want to make sure that every young person who grows up here in Suffolk County never has to leave, never has to leave because they could not find a place they could afford. That is my commitment to all of you.

So today is a new day. It's a new day because of collaboration and cooperation with great local officials as well.

And with that, let me bring up County Executive Ed Romaine.

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