July 27, 2011:  In a quick succession of press releases coming within half an hour of each other last week, first from Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino and then from Ken Jenkins, chairman of the Westchester County Board of Legislators (BOL), the two leaders expressed frustration (for different reasons) over the handling of the still-unsettled Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Affordable Housing Settlement for Westchester County.

In his press release, Astorino blasts HUD for the "unprecedented bureaucratic overreaching" and "unwarranted trampling on local zoning rights" with respect to the implementation of the 2009 affordable housing settlement with the federal government, calling on HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan to get directly involved to end the impasse.

The county executive says in his press release that he would be asking Donovan in a meeting next month in Washington, D.C., to retract demands by HUD that by its own admission in a May 13 letter to the county "go beyond the four corners of the settlement."  Astorino goes on to say that the demands are economically and legally impossible to meet and that they threaten to derail the agreement, which calls for the county to develop 750 units of fair and affordable housing in 31 mostly white communities over a 7-year period.  The settlement with HUD was approved by former County Executive Andrew Spano and the BOL in 2009.

"It's time for HUD to become accountable for its actions," says Astorino.  "Making demands on the county that have no basis in the law, in general, or the settlement, in particular, and that go way beyond anything any community in the United States has ever been asked to do is a counterproductive prescription for failure.  Westchester County is a year ahead of schedule in getting the units developed, but that progress will come to a halt if HUD continues to make demands that constitute unprecedented bureaucratic overreaching by the federal government and an unwarranted trampling of local zoning rights."

In response to the county executive's statements, Jenkins issued a press release stating that he had not been aware of the recent stepped-up demands by HUD officials and expressing the need for a "more collaborative approach [between the county executive and the county board] towards meeting the goals of the housing settlement," requesting the Astorino Administration to "work cooperatively with the Board on the issue."

Jenkins's press release goes on to say, "The Astorino Administration gives regular updates on the settlement to the Board's Committee on Housing, Planning & Operations, but the issue of noncompliance has never been raised, nor did we have any idea that this problem existed.  None of the written correspondence from federal officials regarding the housing settlement that the County Executive mentioned at today's press conference has been shared with the Board."

"The Board has been ready to work with the Astorino Administration," Jenkins continues, "to meet the county's obligations from the start.  So far, the Astorino Administration has chosen to go it alone and attempted to administer this plan without substantial input from the Board.  That strategy has simply not worked. ... We urge the Astorino Administration to work with the Board to develop a new approach towards meeting the goals of the housing settlement.  The Board stands ready to assist in any way needed."

The impasse with HUD, explained the county executive in his press release, is over the federal housing agency's failure to accept the county's Analysis of Impediments, or AI, which HUD has now rejected five times.  The AI is typically a routine document that accompanies requests for federal funding and outlines obstacles to the development of fair and affordable housing choice.  Prior to the settlement, HUD had never rejected an AI by the county.

"In the case of Westchester's AI, HUD is using the document to renegotiate the settlement and that's unacceptable," says Astorino in his press release.  "HUD is demanding things it has no right to ask for, that go beyond the settlement, its own guidelines, state and federal law, as well as common sense and basic economics."

Astorino cites the following areas of overreach in his press release:

Zoning:  Astorino explains that Westchester County does not control local zoning, a fact he says HUD knows full well and was mentioned repeatedly by former County Executive Spano at the August 10, 2009, press conference with HUD announcing the terms of the settlement.  "HUD is now demanding that the county dismantle local zoning," Astorino says.  "I will not allow that to happen."  He further explains that HUD is calling for the county to challenge the zoning practices of local municipalities and "list the steps that the county will take if the municipalities do not enact the changes within three months of the county's notification."   If a municipality fails to make a change, he says, HUD wants the county to take a number of actions including suspension of funds and litigation.

Costs:  Astorino argues that without any justification in the settlement, HUD is arbitrarily calling for half of the 750 units to have three bedrooms, a demand he says that would force the county to run out of money well before all 750 units could be built.  He calculates as follows:

• The county has committed $51.6 million to provide subsidies to build 750 units in 31 eligible communities in seven years.
• That works out to $68,800 a unit in county-funded subsidies.
• Three-bedroom units will require an estimated subsidy of $150,000 each.
• 375 three-bedroom units (half of 750) will cost over $56 million, exceeding county funding and leaving no money for other units.
• The total projected cost with three-bedroom units is $94.3 million.

Integration:  Astorino notes that the settlement requires the county to identify and analyze impediments to fair housing choice based on race, which he says it has done.  In the settlement, he explains, Westchester County denies all of the allegations by the federal government and the Anti-Discrimination Center, which brought the initial lawsuit, relating to racial discrimination and segregation, and there was never a finding to contradict the county's position.  Astorino chastises HUD for ignoring the language of the settlement and for now attempting to force the county to go beyond the mutual agreements in the settlement, which it signed, by demanding that the county make findings of racial discrimination and segregation and identify acts and patterns of racial discrimination.

Of critical importance, Astorino notes, is that the 2010 census shows Westchester County to be one of the most diverse places in the United States.  He points out the following statistics:

• Westchester is the fourth most diverse county in New York, behind Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, tied with Manhattan, and ahead of Staten Island.  Manhattan has a lower percentage of blacks than Westchester (12.9% vs. 14.6%) and a slightly higher percentage of Hispanics (25.4% vs. 21.8%).
• If Westchester were a state, it would be the 7th most diverse in terms of Hispanic representation.
• If Westchester were a state, it would be the 14th most diverse in the US in terms of black representation.

Source of Income:  Astorino explains that the settlement's only requirement on source of income is to "promote, through the County Executive, legislation currently before the Board of Legislators to ban 'source of income' discrimination in housing."  The county's position, he argues, is that it fully complied with this requirement in 2009 when former County Executive Spano promoted the source of income legislation that was before the Board of Legislators at that time.

One immediate consequence of the latest action, Astorino notes, is that HUD has stopped funding CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) projects in local communities in the third year of a three-year funding cycle.  This halt in funding, he says, will cause the county to review and potentially terminate 18 jobs that rely on the CDBG grant money for funding.  He charges that over $6 million in funding is now at risk.  He notes that ironically, most of the people whose jobs are now at risk work on implementing the housing settlement.

"The bottom line is that HUD is asking us to spend money that we don't have, pick fights with our own municipalities, do things we have no power to do and in fact may violate the New York State Constitution, local zoning and a host of environmental laws," Astorino says.  "This is the kind of Washington behavior that angers ordinary citizens.  There is simply no justification for it.  I am hopeful that by meeting with Secretary Donovan, we can return the focus to getting affordable housing built in Westchester."

A quick review of the two press releases by Bronxville Mayor Mary C. Marvin elicited this email response:  "[I] agree wholeheartedly with the county exec on this.  You can't rewrite law to suit your own views whether you are a private citizen or HUD."