Affordable Housing Panel Opens Communication

It would have been remarkable merely because of the panelists assembled to discuss the county-mandated fair and affordable housing settlement, but a League of Women Voters forum at last Tuesday was even more eventful because of what it allowed to occur and what seems to be in short supply about the emotionally charged topic- a discussion between all the parties involved and an opportunity to challenge misconceptions for the public and between local and county officials.

“This is the first time I’ve actually seen you in person,” said Rye Brook Mayor Joan Feinstein to James Johnson, the court-appointed federal housing monitor. “I’ve read a lot of documents with your name on them, but I’m glad to finally see you in person.”

James Johnson’s duty is to ensure the county complies with the terms to which it agreed in the 2009 settlement between Westchester County, HUD and the Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro New York. Those terms include the development of more than 700 fair and affordable housing units in 31 eligible communities throughout the county. He is also a litigation partner at the firm Debevoise and Plimpton, specializing in corporate governance and compliance.

“I suppose a lot of people think of me as the bad guy,” said Johnson. “So I was very happy to have the opportunity to participate in this forum.” He said he would like more opportunities to talk to communities around the county to further clarify not only what his role is, but also the content of the settlement itself.

To that end, Johnson said there is a website that county residents and officials can use as a resource – http://www.westchesterhousingmonitor.org ; the website includes the actual court settlement, monitor reports, the county’s reports, implementation plans and updates.

Panel moderator Gary Zuckerman, also current chair of the Rye Brook Planning Board, said that “a lot of people don’t understand that the County could have faced not only the reimbursement of the federal grants which the court determined it had improperly used, but also $200 to 500 million in damages.”

Both Johnson and Janet Hostetler, Senior Advisor to HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, said they were eager to refute the fear that HUD was moving or pressuring the county to sue municipalities.

“That would be the last thing we would want to do,” said Hostetler.

She also wanted to address the use of the phrase “moving outside the four corners of the agreement” used in a May letter between HUD and the County Executive’s Office.

“We were made aware that the county had a need for as many as ten thousand affordable housing units and the letter was meant to address that need.” It was that larger need, Hostetler said that would require the county to move beyond the parameters the settlement intended to address and the letter's intent was responding to that stated potential need. "We have no desire to file lawsuits against anyone."

"Litigation is just one arrow in the quiver," said Johnson. "While I wouldn't foreclose use of that arrow, I definitely have no intention of using it first, that would be my last option."

When asked by Zuckerman if any municipality had indicated they did not intend to address the requirements of the settlement, none of the panelists – including Norma Drummond, County Deputy Commissioner for Housing and Community Development and Mary Mahon, Director of Real Estate and Special Assistant to the County Executive- were aware that any city, town or village had indicated they would not act to modify zoning laws that would impede them from complying with the settlement.

As mayors in two of the eligible communities required to respond to the settlement, Rye Brook Mayor Joan Feinstein and Rye City Mayor Douglas French said they had a fiduciary responsibility to make sure their municipalities avoided any potential litigation of any sort. Both also said they already had efforts underway to fulfill the terms of the settlement within their communities.

In Rye, a second development of affordable units is currently under construction on Cottage Street. And Rye Brook is currently in the public hearing phase of a proposed model ordinance that would establish a “floating eligibility zone” throughout the village; two development applications are also under consideration.

“We are not developers,” said Mayor Feinstein. “A lot of residents seem to think that we (the Village of Rye Brook) are the ones that will go out and construct these units and that is not the case.”

In order to comply with the terms of the settlement, Feinstein explained, municipalities can only create a favorable and attractive environment to draw developers.

“But we can’t make them come,” said Feinstein. “Developers are free to decide where they want to purchase land and develop.” Her fear she said is that attractive zoning laws will not be sufficient on their own to produce the units specified in the agreement. “What happens if the developers don’t come?” she asked.

Another panelist concerned about what he termed the “unintended consequences” of the settlement is Port Chester Mayor Dennis Pilla. He said it was possible that the burden of fulfilling the settlement may already be influencing the way the county distributes the federal housing resources it receives, diverting money away from the non-eligible communities which already have burdens on their housing stock, in order to respond to the urgency of the settlement's time tables.

Norma Drummond, who is responsible for administering the county’s affordable housing and community development programs, said that was simply not the case. “If we have a proposal before us, we make every effort to make it happen.”

Pilla also expressed concern that the settlement is creating the potential for additional burdens on already strapped school districts that happen to overlap with municipalities required to comply with the settlement.

Such is the case between adjacent municipalities represented by Mayor Pilla and Mayor Feinstein. Port Chester school district encompasses Port Chester and part of Rye Brook.

At the panel, as well as at recent Rye Brook Village Board meetings, Mayor Pilla and other Port Chester residents have insisted that their proposed model ordinance could generate an influx of children to the Port Chester school district and that the affordable housing units to be developed in Rye Brook will all be diverted from sections of Rye Brook served by the Blind Brook school district.

In a later interview, Mayor Feinstein denied that was the case at all. During the panel, Rye Brook Planning Board chair Gary Zuckerman pointed out there was no data to justify Pilla’s concern.

“Every part of the Village would be eligible,” said Feinstein, “Including parcels in the north part of Rye Brook.” Feinstein said later she could not be definitive, but approximately one-third of Rye Brook was served by the Port Chester school district. 

Developer Louis Larizza who is constructing the Cottage Street units in Rye and also has two applications under consideration in Rye Brook acknowledged that the economics of affordable housing are often intimidating to traditional developers accustomed to calculating potential profit forward from cost of construction to potential sale revenue.

 “With affordable housing, you have to back into it,” said Larizza.

 “Of course, you’re looking to maximize profits” he acknowledged and that often means maximizing the number of units– most in the Rye and Rye Brook are are studios or one-bedrooms. Larizza said he had no difficulty developing larger units, but other constraints then come into play. “The average cost of a parcel of land in Rye is $1.5 million.” 

Larizza said the bigger obstacle to developing affordable housing units was not the dollars and 'sense' of it, but the assumptions current community residents had about the people who would be moving into the units. 

One of the only panelists to even indirectly address the issue of race, even though it is at the core of the settlement aggremeent, was land developer Larizza. “They think these are people moving from housing projects, but these are hard-working people. The income requirement for a single person I think is around $60,000 per year.” 

People who move into affordable housing units at one stage of their financial career often surpass their current station.

Larizza told the story of a young, African American man who moved into one of his affordable units with his wife only to face resistance from the community.

“They didn’t know,” said Larizza, “this young man was in medical school and was working hard to pay off those debts. Affordable housing was what he could attain at the time, but he was a doctor moving into that nieghborhood.”