A bill to repeal the vacancy allowance has languished in the State Assembly for years, but some see an opening to inject the issue into negotiations over the renewal of a tax exemption for developers who build affordable housing. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has brokered talks on the exemption between representatives of labor and the real estate industry. Tenant groups regard the exemption, called 421a, as a giveaway to developers.

“We should get something for tenants,” said Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh, a sponsor of the repeal bill. “We should do something to strengthen rent laws.”

Mr. Kavanagh, a Democrat who represents the East Side of Manhattan, said the vacancy allowance had risen to the top of tenants’ demands because it also helped landlords surpass the $2,700 threshold that allowed them to take an apartment out of rent stabilization.

But Albany seems to be at a standstill on the housing front. The governor included $2 billion in the state budget this year for a statewide housing program, yet there is no agreement on how to spend the money. A plan for the $2 billion is to be laid out in a memorandum of understanding among the governor, the Assembly and the State Senate. Some housing advocates said they were hopeful that the agreement would be made final by the end of the legislative session in June.

The city’s major developers, represented by the Real Estate Board of New York, have balked at Mr. Cuomo’s insistence that 421a projects pay union labor rates. So far, the governor, a Democrat, has been unable to secure a compromise between the unions and the developers.

The fight for affordability in the city focuses in large part on retaining the stock of about one million rent-regulated apartments, but regulated does not necessarily mean affordable. The Rent Guidelines Board says most tenants in rent-stabilized apartments spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities, which is the federal standard for affordable housing. Research by the board’s staff shows that inflation-adjusted wages rose only by 1.6 percent in the year ending in the third quarter of 2015.

Jack Freund, executive vice president of the Rent Stabilization Association, said the vacancy allowance, which he said made up for “inadequate” raises by the rent board, was hardly to blame for upward rent trends that are mostly associated with the strong real estate market.

“There’s rent pressure throughout the city regardless of the type of housing, because costs have gone up,” Mr. Freund said.