BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — On Tuesday, Shavira Pittman was handed the keys to her and her family’s new home.
“It means a lot to me and my family, we get to move into a new place, a new establishment, a new community all together,” said Pittman, who’s from Buffalo. “It’s very hard to find affordable housing, especially new development, and we’re really lucky to be able to move in.
Pittman and her family are the first residents to move into the new transformed Perry Homes in Buffalo.
“Look at the before and after pictures of what was here before and it is extraordinary,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said. “It’s transformational and it’s life-changing for little babies like this who are going to have a beautiful, new home, a safe home, to grow up in.”
The transformation is the first phase of the over $200 million project, and once complete, it’s expected to have more than 400 new affordable housing units.
Hochul believes housing is the biggest expense for people’s budgets.
“Whether it’s your rent or your mortgage, as I’m laser-focused on driving down costs for New Yorkers, it starts with projects like these,” she said.
After showing Pittman around her new home on Tuesday, Hochul also visited the Apollo Diner in Blasdell to have breakfast with mothers and their littles ones to hear their concerns about the cost of living.
“It’s a great place to come back to, but it also reminds me of where I came from and that there’s people still in my hometown, home, community, here that are struggling with the high cost of living,” Hochul said. “It felt like it was thirty years ago sitting at the same table with my friends. The cost of food, particularly food prices, have gone off the charts. We talked about eggs, we talked about the price of fruit.”
She said that one mom said her neighbor is paying $30,000 a year to have two children in child care.
“How does a family pay for that?” Hochul said. “So I let them know that we’re doing everything we can to increase subsidies for families on child care, but it is hard, it’s hard out there for these families.”
She said what concerns her are tariffs driving up costs even more, and in light of the cuts happening from Washington, she wants to show people they’re governing in a different way.
“I could not be prouder to come here and talk to some moms and see them with their little babies and the look on their faces when I told them that because of our affordability agenda, they’ll have over $5,000 back in their pockets with a child tax credit increase, and middle class tax rate cuts as well as an inflation rebate and cutting the cost of school lunches and breakfasts. They were so happy to know,” Hochul said.
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Hope Winter is a reporter and multimedia journalist who has been part of the News 4 team since 2021. See more of her work here.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
