Group Says Westchester Failing to Meet Affordable Housing Obligations

The group that sued Westchester County for allegedly not doing enough to advance fair and affordable housing is now arguing that the county and federal government have failed in meeting the provisions of a court settlement that requires 750 units of affordable housing to be built in the county's predominantly white communities.

The Anti-Discrimination Center, the group that brought the 2006 federal suit that led to the $63 million settlement in 2009, filed motions with the court last week claiming the county is trying to skirt its obligations. Specifically, the ADC alleges the county is trying to build the requisite number of units without addressing any of the underlying issues of segregation and housing discrimination, including so-called "exclusionary" zoning laws passed by municipalities.

"Westchester is not simply indifferent to whether zoning change occurs; rather, Westchester’s actions assure that change will not occur," ADC chief Craig Gurian and attorney Robert Stroup wrote.

The group, which received a $7.5 million payout as part of the settlement, also claims that the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as the federal monitor appointed to oversee the case, have failed in their oversight roles. The ADC wants the court to step in to enforce the provisions of the settlement.

Ned McCormack, a spokesman for County Executive Rob Astorino, said the ADC's claims are baseless and the county is actually ahead of schedule in complying with the settlement.

"The ADC is trying to introduce new requirements and that increase in scope is unacceptable and unhelpful to the goal of the settlement," he said. "The county is not prepared to go beyond the parameters of the settlement, which were fully negotiated between all the parties prior to adoption."

The county has until 2016 to complete the construction of the affordable units, the bulk of which must be built in mostly-white communities such as Scarsdale, Rye and Larchmont. McCormack said that 164 units have already been approved by the monitor, James Johnson; 154 have financing and another 89 have building permits. The settlement calls for 100 units to be approved and 50 more to have building permits by the end of this year.

In court documents, the ADC said that many of those units, however, have been planned in locations that will not serve the purposes of desegregating white communities. A development in Rye, for example, is near the city's border with Port Chester, a largely Hispanic community that is not named in the settlement.

"Affirmatively marketing these units to minorities, therefore, would not be a matter of reducing segregation, but of perpetuating segregation," the group wrote.

In a Wall Street Journal article, both HUD and Johnson said they were taking the settlement seriously. A HUD spokesman also told the paper the agency is withholding $7.3 million in federal housing funds due to the county.

The court settlement gives the county authority to sue local governments for failing to repeal zoning laws that prohibit affordable housing from being built, but McCormack said the county would not revert to litigation.

 "The county's approach from the start has been, you build neighborhoods and communities by consensus, not by litigation," he said. "We've had over 250 meetings with municipalities, developers and land owners to work with them to get this done."

The ADC called this approach "all carrot, no stick."

"If Westchester were at all serious about meeting...its obligations, it necessarily would have engaged in a municipality-by-municipality assessment, using all available means...including legal action," court papers read.

It could be months before the federal court decides whether or not to grant the ADC's motion.