New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state legislators failed to meet their April 1 deadline for the state's budget, but announced their final agreement Friday, which includes $2.5 billion in funds to combat homelessness and affordable housing.
The final budget came in at $153 billion and even has a plan for tuition-free education at state colleges, according to an article by Jesse McKinley and Lisa Foderaro for The New York Times.
San Francisco implemented a similar tuition-free option earlier this year, which could help Millennials with student debt, which may often hinder homeownership. However, click here to read about how a free-tuition option could also restrict affordability.
New York’s budget also dedicated a substantial amount of funds to fight homelessness and increase affordable housing within the state, according to an article by Tanay Warerkar for Curbed.
The funds will help with the state’s plan to create 100,000 new affordable housing units and 6,000 supportive housing units.
From the article:
The budget deal, which still needs to be officially approved by the State Assembly and Senate, has already garnered praise from several housing groups. A coalition of 11 housing groups statewide including the New York State Association for Affordable Housing issued the following statement:
“Today, the Governor, Senate, and Assembly showed true leadership in passing a state budget that made low-income New Yorkers a priority and finally allocated $2.5 billion in housing funds. The commitment made today will profoundly impact the lives of thousands of New Yorkers, including 88,000 people currently homeless throughout the state and nearly one million households paying more than half their income in rent each month.”
