This is not fine: Legislature poised to leave without significant housing fixes

Imagine your home is on fire, but the arriving firefighters spend interminable minutes arguing over how they’re going to put it out — are they using the hose, or maybe some kind of gel? Entering from below or dropping in from above?

You’d understandably be baffled and a bit incensed at their squabbling while your belongings were consumed, and that’s how New Yorkers should feel as Albany leaders teeter on the edge of passing almost nothing on housing construction as they get ready to wrap up the legislative session and skip town.

Ideally, they would have approved Gov. Hochul’s ambitious housing plan, a properly far-reaching antidote to an emergency situation, but sadly that effort was strangled in the crib mainly by suburban legislators who screamed bloody murder at the prospect of being forced to build a few more units of housing mainly clustered around transit. Their insincere fear-mongering and zeal to preserve property values at the cost of addressing the long-term existential quandary of a lack of affordable housing — and at this point, “affordable” means even to the middle class, let alone lower income New Yorkers — knocked down what could have been a significant step.

For their part, progressives have remained laser focused on “good cause” eviction, which Hochul has staunchly opposed, predictably leading nowhere. Now everyone’s ready to pack it up with no housing compromises notched. If the Legislature and the governor really can’t find their way to each other’s big picture ideas, then at least they should end up at some of the more straightforward fixes that could move the needle, including some resurrection of the 421-a program — whatever they might want to call it now — and eliminate the counterproductive Floor Area Ratio requirements.

There are certainly kinks to work out with these efforts, including the right level of affordability that each program should mandate, but the worst possible outcome is to do nothing and let an already untenable housing situation deteriorate further. Do your jobs, and grab whichever hose is closest.