Dozens of N.Y. lawmakers open to reject budget over housing [Video]

Dozens of state Democratic lawmakers told housing advocates they will not support a state budget with a housing package that exempts certain tenants from stronger eviction protection laws or rollbacks to rent regulations passed in 2019.

As state leaders work on the state budget, now 10 days late, discussions to reach a housing deal continue to suck most of the air out of the negotiating room. State lawmakers up for election this fall are feeling a heightened urgency to finalize a deal to increase housing stock and strengthen tenant protections and rental assistance programs after major housing policy was removed from last year’s budget.

“I think we are close, but we’re certainly not there,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told reporters Tuesday. “We’re still discussing a lot of elements of housing. … I think it’s doable. I know it’s doable, and that’s why we’re working so hard at it.”

But …