Federal Government May Step in to Mandate Affordable Housing in Westchester

Westchester has been on the hook to build 750 affordable housing units since 2009, when the county settled a federal lawsuit with the Anti-Discrimination Center.

At issue: demographics show minorities are confined to a small list of urban towns and cities in Westchester–places like Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Port Chester and Peekskill–and the Anti-Discrimination Center argued that Westchester didn't do anything to alleviate the problem.

When former County Executive Andy Spano returned to the legislature for a third time to ask for more money to fight the center, some legislators panicked at the looming $50 million lawsuit–and the prospect of losing millions more in federal money–and voted to settle. 

Spano went from fighting the lawsuit to pledging that "Westchester will be a model for the entire nation in dealing with fair and affordable housing."

But a year later, Westchester has submitted three plans to satisfy the terms of the lawsuit, and all three plans have been rejected by a federal monitor. In the next few weeks, observers say, the federal government will likely step in and force Westchester to carry out its own plan.

"The reality is that the consent decree had a two-strike rule. After the second time, the monitor could have made any changes he wanted to," the Anti-Discrimination Center's Craig Gurian said. "Rather than exercising that authority, he gave criticisms and gave them yet another chance. But after three times, it's the strikeout rule in anybody's league."

Those 750 affordable housing units are going up, and they're coming to the majority of municipalities in Westchester – places like Larchmont, Scarsdale, Eastchester, Rye, Rye Brook, Hastings, Irvington and Bedford, and sections of the Town of Mamaroneck. 

A central point of the lawsuit argued that affordable–or fair–housing is either segregation-dissolving, or segregation-perpetuating. If a developer builds 200 units in a Mount Vernon high-rise or in downtown Port Chester, that's segregation-perpetuating, according to the federal government.

Almost 60 percent of Mount Vernon's residents are African-American, and Port Chester is famously known as an ethnic melting pot where Brazilians, Mexicans, Argentines and others who identify as Hispanic comprise about half the population.

While the Village of Mamaroneck is not as diverse, with 84.6 percent of its population being white, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, it is diverse enough to  not be part of the fair and affordable housing plan. But municipalities like Larchmont (95.5 percent white), Rye Brook (92 percent white), Scarsdale (84 percent white, 13 percent Asian) and Chappaqua (92 percent white) are what the federal government considers "A" towns, places that are monochromatic and ripe for fair housing development.

In order to receive federal aid, counties are required to actively discourage geographic segregation.

"Contrary to what some people, including the county executive seem to suggest, neighborhood patterns did not just drop from the sky," Gurian said. "They emerged during a long period of explicit, intentional racial exclusion carried out for decades by both public and private actors of all types. And as you know, patterns put in place tend to stay in place, unless there's some intervening factor."

But Town of Mamaroneck Supervisor Valerie O'Keeffe thinks the reasons are furely financial. "If people have money to buy property here, nobody is stopping them," she said, adding that segregation is not the issue.

The Town of Mamaroneck currently has 15 housing units in the Hommocks Park Apartments that were built to be purposely affordable to those earning 80 percent of the area median income, said Town Administrator Steve Altieri. Another way in which the town provides affordable housing is through a Section 8 housing program that subsidizes rent so tenants pay no more than 30 percent of their income for the unit. Currently, 650 units are subsidized, he added.

The town is also considering a proposed construction of 149 condo units on Madison Avenue, and one of the approval conditions is that 10 of these units are affordable rentals to those earning 80 percent of the area median income, Altieri said. Construction is planned to begin in 2011.

In Larchmont, currently there is only Section 8 housing, but Mayor Josh Mandell says the village has been pursuing converting "a couple of properties from the market rate to affordable housing with a grant or subsidy."

A few years ago, the village signed an agreement with the county to develop 35 units of affordable housing, a condition attached to a grant given to improve Flint Park, Mandell said. "We have yet to add anything that would satisfy that obligation."

The strongest argument for this development, he said, was that "it would satisfy the needs of some of our workforce," so it is unclear if this would meet any requirements under the new mandate.

Other towns in Westchester are preparing for action by the federal government. Towns like Hastings have formed affordable housing committees before the lawsuit against the county, while so-called "B" towns like Dobbs Ferry–those considered segregated, but to a lesser degree than towns like Rye and Scarsdale–are looking at zoning changes to enable development.

In the meantime, feeling pressure from the federal government, the county has responded by attaching new strings to federal Community Development Block Grants. To receive the federal money–which is distributed by Westchester – towns have to agree to zoning changes and give the county first pick of available property within their borders.

Many communities have balked, especially those that aren't directly impacted by the lawsuit. At a meeting last month, when Tarrytown officials were discussing taking $35,000 in block grant money for a park project, one trustee said signing the contract with the county "sounds like selling your soul for $35,000."

Eight municipal leaders from the Village of Mamaroneck, Mount Kisco, Port Chester, Tarrytown, Sleepy Hollow and Tuckahoe met yesterday to discuss presenting a unified front to Westchester County. These municipalities aren't named as development sites for affordable housing by the lawsuit because of their already diverse demographics, and their leaders are hoping Westchester can exclude them from the contract language.

"We are concerned about how that judgment and the proposed language would affect the Village of Mamaroneck and the entire consortium," said Village Manager Rich Slingerland, who attended yesterday's meeting. Those present discussed meeting with the county to adjust the draft language, but a meeting date has not been said, he added.

The block grant issue has caused delays in several projects, such as a downtown beautification project in Port Chester that was partially funded by the county-administered federal grants.

Attendees at yesterday's summit hope county legislators will sympathize and let them off the hook. In the meantime, leaders in more than 20 other towns–those that will be forced to build affordable housing–will wait to see what the federal government does next.