What's New at CHI
Stop fighting, start crafting landmark housing deal for Westchester
Written by: Alexander Roberts
July 24, 2011
Since the Anti-Discrimination Center of New York and federal Department of Housing and Urban Development won a landmark $62 million settlement against Westchester County, affordable housing advocates have been in foxhole mode.
Why stand up to support the consent decree when you have a federal judge and HUD to do it? Especially when the county funds agencies like Community Housing Innovations, Inc., of which I am executive director, and we need the county's approval for all affordable housing development. Besides mandating the construction of 750 units of affordable housing, the settlement would end the exclusionary zoning that has made 31 of Westchester's 43 municipalities as segregated as the deep South, circa 1968.
I remember 1968 because it’s the year I graduated from one of the top public high schools in the country. My overwhelmingly white classmates went on to become presidents of companies, scientists and journalists, among the many doctors and lawyers of a privileged, wealthy community.
But enlightened communities recognize their legal and moral responsibility to provide equal opportunity to those less fortunate. I vividly remember the school board adopting a program to invite 30 exchange students from Brandeis High School in Harlem to attend our school. It caused some grumbling but it passed.
As a high school senior attending a “values conference,” a black participant in that program rose to speak. He said that most of his friends had either dropped out of school or been arrested, while he was going to college in the fall. He had tears in his eyes as he expressed his gratitude and I never forgot him.
Failure
Westchester County committed itself to far more than spending $51.6 million to build 750 affordable housing units. Here is the evidence of the County’s failure to honor the federal court order:
- The consent decree required the county—through litigation, if necessary--to ensure that each municipality eliminated the barriers to the development of affordable housing, including the barriers created by exclusionary zoning in overwhelmingly white areas, and passed a Model Ordinance no later than January 2011. This has not occurred and the county executive has publicly stated he will not sue municipalities to enforce the decree.
- The settlement required that Westchester County submit an acceptable Implementation Plan and Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice more than a year go. It has yet to do so.
- The County promised to implement “source of income” legislation that would end discrimination in rental housing against tenants on the basis of where the rent was coming from. Passed by the Board of Legislators, Astorino vetoed this legislation.
Even more troubling is that the county administration has eviscerated the Housing Opportunity Commission, replacing seven of its nine appointees (including Chairman George Raymond) and neutering the one County Agency with a legal mandate to promote the creation of 10,768 affordable units by 2015.
Defiance
This is not about money. The County could require eligible communities to construct affordable housing, widely marketed, without costing taxpayers anything, if developers were allowed to build market rate multifamily housing that would subsidize the 10% that is affordable.
If Executive Astorino had simply blamed his predecessor, Andy Spano, for signing the consent decree and grudgingly gone along with it, we all could have remained safely in our foxholes and let HUD and Justice Cote do the heavy lifting.
But Astorino has been a man of honesty and courage, who has not shirked from the tough fights—notably taking on the oppressive tax burden in Westchester County. While some might call his defiance of a federal court order foolish and self-defeating, he opposes it on the principle of Home Rule—that local communities may control their zoning, even if it means that only 1% of students in school districts like Chappaqua and Bronxville are African American and lack of affordable housing means minorities are frozen out.
That being said, just as Galileo could not be forced by papal edict to write that the Sun revolved around the Earth, or Jefferson Davis forced to write the Emancipation Proclamation, the county executive should not be forced to write an analysis of impediments or implementation plan when he doesn’t believe in their basic premise.
The consent decree states clearly that the Court-appointed Monitor, James Johnson, must step in. On August 10, 2009 the Court gave the county 120 days to come up with an acceptable implementation plan. It further states, “…the Monitor may extend the deadline once for the submission of the implementation plan.” It has been nearly two years and Mr. Johnson has extended the deadline three times in an effort to achieve consensus. “If we can’t do it fast,” he told a gathering of nonprofit housing agencies several months ago, “at least we will do it right.”
Mr. Johnson has already started writing the Implementation Plan, in consultation with experts, the county and stakeholders. He will, in all likelihood, be asked by HUD and the county to write the Analysis of Impediments, as well. He should do so without further delay. Fortunately for Westchester County, his inclusiveness, patience and even-handedness thus far will help him develop the landmark housing plan that will bring America closer to its ideals.
posted 7/26/2011
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