Expanding housing options in New York will address an ongoing crisis over affordability in the state, Gov. Kathy Hochul told the New York Building Congress Wednesday as she continues to hammer the issue this summer.

Hochul told the gathering housing remains a root issue for New York, and solving it could also help address a variety of other concerns facing the state. 

"We must build more housing," she said. "And then, you continue building the buildings and working on the public infrastructure projects and people who always think about us continue to talk about us and that sense of awe."

The governor this year unsuccessfully sought a broad housing proposal in her state budget proposal with the goal of building 800,000 new units of housing in the next 10 years.

Ultimately, lawmakers could not get on board with the details of the plan, which called for a renewal of a tax break meant to expand affordable housing in New York City, linking infrastructure to more amendable local housing policy and allowing the state to override local zoning restrictions for qualified projects. 

This month, Hochul moved through executive action to support funding for local governments that create more development friendly rules as well as allow for a limited version of the tax break in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn.  

Hochul has said she plans to make a renewed legislative push in January to achieve a more fleshed out plan on the statewide level. 

Housing has been a major priority for the governor, who has pointed to the problems facing first-time homebuyers as well as tenants in New York. She has cast the solution as a simple supply-and-demand fix. 

"The more we build — and we talk about an affordability crisis, not just here, but every corner of the state — if we build more housing, all levels, I didn't say it had to be all affordable, I never said that," she said. "Just build more housing, all kinds, everywhere, and then we'll be able to start driving down the price because my highest priorities for the state are, number one, public safety, and we're making great progress here."