Just a day after Governor Kathy Hochul delivered her 2026 State of the State address, the NAACP New York State Conference held its first legislative briefing of the year on January 14. Held online, the civil rights organization’s briefing featured NAACP leaders Chris Alexander and L. Joy Williams, who outlined the organization’s legislative priorities and responded to the governor’s proposals.
In her State of the State, Gov. Hochul promised that her administration’s efforts this year will protect New Yorkers from harmful Trump administration policies, improve affordability, and help New York’s economy progress. “Statewide… we’re promising universal pre-K for every single four-year-old by 2028,” Hochul said. “And this year, we’ll pilot community-wide childcare to provide year-round, full-day, affordable care for newborns to three-year-olds. And we’ll build on that proven success of our state childcare assistance program and our voucher program so tens of thousands more families can access high-quality care for no more than $15 a week.”
Hochul also said her administration plans to reduce the costs of housing development: “This year, we’re going to invest an additional $250 million into affordable housing and $100 million to scale innovative manufactured housing that lowers costs and speeds construction,” she said. Hochul also spoke of efforts to expand behavioral health services for veterans and people with disabilities, protect children from online predators, and regulate artificial intelligence that targets youth.
Williams, the NAACP New York State Conference president, and Alexander, its executive director, said they attended Hochul’s speech in Albany so they could meet with elected officials and make sure their organization’s legislative agenda was being represented.
Williams characterized Hochul’s speech as even-keeled enough to keep the governor out of major political fights. “It definitely was a highlight reel of … the investments that were made: ‘Crime is down, and, you know, we’re investing in housing, education, our children.’ Like, these are all the things that people have at the top of their list in an election year,” Williams said.
The NAACP New York State Conference says it strongly supports increasing the state’s housing supply and wants to see it done without harming existing communities. But Williams also stressed that the organization wants to make sure that state investments in affordable housing and homeownership are equitable. “It’s about defining affordability, and from our perspective, we want to make sure we’re advocating on behalf of Black New Yorkers, particularly Black New Yorkers who have been told for generations that the way to build wealth in this country is through homeownership. You have a swath of Black folks who, you know, did what America told us to do, right? Invest and save and build wealth by having housing. And we’ve done that. But now there are all of these changes that may happen that may impede upon people’s American dream of homeownership.”
Hochul’s strongest position, according to Williams, was her strong stance against the Trump administration’s policies — specifically, what she described as unlawful actions by ICE. Even that stance should, logically, get strong support, Williams suggested, following ICE’s killing of 37-year-old Renee Good and the protests that have subsequently erupted in Minneapolis. “I think we have to be particularly careful when you have a hostile federal government; we need state executives and local executives to exert their power in protecting the people who live and work within their state.”
New York State’s NAACP is working in coalition with advocacy organizations like the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), Immigrant Defense Project (IDP), Make the Road New York, Brooklyn Defenders, Legal Aid Society, Immigrant Advocates Response Collaborative (I-ARC), and local chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) to speak out against ICE raids. It’s part of the civil rights groups’ strategy to stop what they term federal overreach.
“We all have to stand against this,” Williams said, calling on people to speak out against ICE because of the danger we find ourselves in. She said ICE has to be confronted by people she calls occupants of the office of the citizen. “You have the office of the president, the office of the mayor, you know, all of those kinds of stuff. But the office of the citizen is the most important office in this country. The Constitution says so. And if you are troubled by what is happening in our streets and how you are being governed, it is our right to stand up and say we do not want this; this is not how we want the federal government to act. This is not how we want states to comply.”
Alexander said the NAACP plans to hold more briefings in the months ahead and give updates on legislative activity, track endorsed bills, and share feedback from both lawmakers and community members. This, he said, will give people the opportunity to stay engaged with the legislative session as it unfolds.