B-Roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Celebrates the Completion of $15 Million Affordable Housing Development in Buffalo’s West Side

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul today celebrated the completion of a $15.3 million project to convert a former hospital building into 44 affordable and supportive homes for New Yorkers aged 62 and older. Folwell Apartments is part of a larger redevelopment of the historic eight-acre Women and Children’s Hospital located in Buffalo’s Elmwood Village neighborhood. 

B-ROLL of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

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

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

Thank you, Anne, for your leadership of People Inc. I knew you in a previous position, your leadership in Lockport, we really made a difference in the community. So I want to thank you for being a friend for many, many years, but also how you're giving so many people an opportunity to have the dignity of a wonderful home. So thank you – and everyone at People Inc., I want to give you from the bottom of my heart, I've been to so many groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings for People Inc., and you really are a state and national leader in terms of just doing what's so important, giving people homes. So, thank you.

Great to have our mayor here as well. We just all were at a press conference speaking about how serious crimes, shootings, and homicides are way down in the City of Buffalo. So this community is even safer. That should give the residents of this wonderful place I call home a sense of ease when they're walking around the streets in places like Elmwood Village and others. Thank you, Mayor, for all you're doing to keep our city safe and investing in projects like this.

Also, our Assemblymember Jonathan Rivera has joined us. Thank you for your leadership and representation of this community here locally, but also you're a strong voice in Albany. And I appreciate your friendship and all you do. We have an amazing County Executive as well who has been focused on affordability issues since I've known him. He's been very engaged with the state and trying to find more opportunities to give people homes, keep our communities safer and more livable. County Executive Mark Poloncarz, thank you for all you do.

Also, Majority Leader of the City Council. I go way back with David Rivera, back to my early days first running for office. And great to see you again, David, and thank you for what you do. And we have our residents who will be hearing from shortly, like Michael Cureton, I want to thank you for joining us here today and look forward to your remarks as well.

No event in the City of Buffalo related to housing is complete without Lenny Skrill in presence. Lenny, how many events we've been at together, Lenny? Western New York. Yeah – so yeah, so who's counting? But RuthAnne Visnauskas is an extraordinary leader of HCR, Housing and Community Renewal. And alsoLenny is a great ambassador for this program all across the state. And you've really made a difference, Lenny. So grateful to have you as part of our team.

Friends from Kaleida Health. Thank you. Thank you very much for having the vision to give a wonderful home for our children and new moms over in a different venue, but also not turning your back on this neighborhood, which is so important to all of us. This community matters. I have spent many, many years in this neighborhood, in this community coming to this hospital with kids who had all kinds of injuries that kids get. And so I've been here many times as a mom as well. It's great to be back in this venue.

But I wanted to say, and again, thank you for joining us yesterday at our honoring people with disabilities and giving them the access to the halls of government and places like the executive residence where FDR once lived. And we spoke about how an individual who had polio at age 39 was able to overcome tremendous adversity to become a great governor, and ultimately a president who focused on the needs of people who were wanting for so much. And so it was great to bring people together there to share those wonderful, inspiring stories.

And this is where it all began, this building. And Anne gave a wonderful history of the building, the story, the impact it had here. And this is where moms brought new life into the world, but also – and young children, babies began their very first years. And how beautiful is it that now we can return this place for our senior citizens to live out their years in a place that is warm and welcoming?

And this hospital, when it closed down, as I've mentioned, people didn't know what it would be. It was a void in Elmwood Village. Would it be blighted? So many places, a building closes, and nothing happens, and it just stands there mocking the community, reminding people of the people that used to work here and people who came here and this was part of the fabric of the community. But this was also a great opportunity for those who seized it. And I'm so grateful for all the partners, and the private developers, People Inc. and others who are saying, “This community deserves to have life again.”

And I'm really excited to see that people have already moved in here. I think it's completely full. Is that right? Almost full. So you're saving room for the mayor and I? We're old enough to qualify. We're the same age, so I can say that. But this is great. And the investment of the state, $12 million in this project and affordable housing units starting at under $700 a month. And it's amazing what's considered affordable anymore, but $700 a month and under is going to really make a difference.

And some people need supportive services. And that's the whole concept of not just giving people a home and saying, here you are, but identifying people with special needs and assistance and, you know, there's just a way we can do this right. And that has been my priority as governor, to just find the right path to making people have high quality in their lives, especially in their later years.

So this Elmwood Crossing is going to be a great asset to this neighborhood. And making sure that we focus on, in this particular building, the people, the one in five New Yorkers who are over 65, and that's 3.5 million people. That's extraordinary. That's a lot of people who need help. And we are going to continue to help these individuals -- and we're not done yet.

But it's not just about building housing for seniors, it's about making sure that we have all kinds of housing across the state of New York. And some people are satisfied with the status quo. We have enough – why shake things up? If people are dragging their feet – well, people drag their feet, well we're digging in. We are going to be doing so many more housing projects over the next many years because we have not focused on this as a priority. And that's one of the reasons we have an affordability crisis.

We're not building the supply to meet the demand, and when you have limited supply, the prices go up. And that's what we've seen from Buffalo to Brooklyn. And as governor of this state, that is something when I ask people, “Why would anybody leave this state?” People are not saying taxes. They're saying they can't afford housing. And we can change that dynamic.

It's all about the intentionality, the willingness to break through all the artificial barriers or the naysayers or people who have all these qualifiers before they'll okay projects – that has to end. We have to have breakthroughs where we say we're putting the people of the state first. They want us to do our jobs, and I look forward to going back to the legislature in January with another approach that's going to try and drive more attention, more energy around building more homes in this state. So that's what my focus is going to be.

And I like to keep score on how we're doing there. The crime numbers are good, Mayor. Also, how much housing are we building in the City of Buffalo since I've been governor? We've had 11 state funded affordable and supportive projects. 11 just in the last year and a half. And so I'm really proud of the Westminster Commons and Jefferson Avenue Apartments and $250 million, Lenny, that you helped drive into this community. So that's the money man, right there. Creating or preserving over 2,500 homes. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. That's a great story to be proud of. But I know we can do more. And last week, I outlined a number of executive actions because I'm impatient, those who know me. I don't want to wait. The legislature can join me in this as we head into the next session, but I wanted more done. So I'm looking at all the powers I have as the executive of the state to jumpstart production of housing in every community across New York. And I'm also focusing on how I can incentivize communities.

So I have gathered up all the discretionary funding that we have, $650 million, and only pro-housing communities will be prioritized in that. That's one way I can leverage the power of state government to drive the policy changes that have not happened up until now, that we're going to start getting done. I also want to overcome some of the regulatory burdens that are placed on people who do want to become a developer. Take a risk. It's always a risk. You never know if there's going to be a good outcome, whether costs, supply chains, inflation, all these other factors, and we're trying to get people to do something in our interest, we have to make it worth their while and not make it so complicated. So we have too many reasons why new construction is not getting off the ground.

And again, I want to break through those obstacles. And I'm calling on all state agencies across every corner of the state. If I see a little plot of state land and it's ours, I say, “Can I put a house there? Can I build housing there?” So we're going to be doing an inventory – right now it’s going on, all abandoned, vacant, reusable properties that can be repurposed for housing. So that's another priority that I'm going to be using as well, another tool I can use as well.

This building where we are today, the apartments, are an example of the possibility when people are willing to think expansively, open-minded. But at the core of it all, if we don't provide housing for our citizens – all ages, all levels, all rents – if we don't give them options, we will lose the opportunity for our state to grow. That's not how we're going to do this. We're going to build, build, and build. And I'm going to continue finding ways to think outside the box, give everybody the dignity of a home – giving them the dignity that's associated with a community that cares about you enough to build that home. And we're going to start changing the trajectory that we're on right now.

So, I'm excited about this, and I think about the seniors that'll be housed here. No matter what age you are, there's still more to give. And I saw this in my own family with my mother for her 70th birthday. “Mom, can we throw you a party?” “No, I had another idea. I thought I should have a home for victims of domestic violence.” And she literally purchased a former abandoned funeral home and we gave it new life and allowed families to come in there and get a new lease to have support for the children and support in court for the women and give them job training and give them just a beautiful place to put their head at night.

And so I meet so many seniors who still have that energy. They want to make a difference. And they're creative. And they're trying to find ways to use their more plentiful times since retirement to make a difference in their communities. And one of those people you're going to hear from shortly, Michael Cureton. He told me about his efforts to go from being Allstate Insurance, right? He spent a lot of years working hard. And now he wants to use his creative energies. He's an artist and he wants to find more ways to share his beautiful work with the rest of the world.

So this is what we're talking about – creating a nurturing environment that allows people to really fulfill their true ambitions and to continue making contributions to our community. And people like Michael are doing just that. So, he's teaching arts and crafts to seniors. Mayor, you want to take a class with me?

But if people don't have a place to live, they can't give back, they can't take care of others, and they can't pass down all the legacy of their own work. And so I'm looking to do this. I'm excited. We're going to keep coming back here over and over and over, showing how we're making things happen. And I'm going to continue working with organizations like People Inc. to make a difference in people's lives because that's why we do what we do every single day.

So I want to introduce our mayor who's a partner in all this and thank him for his leadership. Sorry about the jokes, but I can do it because we're the same age. Great to see you, Mayor Brown.