After many years of lobbying and negotiating by the Westchester-Putnam Working
Families Party and others, on March 3, 2008, the White Plains Common Council unanimously amended the White Plains Affordable
Housing Program to extend its reach. While the legislation represents a compromise between opposing interest groups, it is
a significant victory for workforce housing, and the Working Families Party's role was noted by several Council members in
their remarks. The amended law now requires that developers set aside 10% of units in buildings
of ten units or more (up from 6% and down from buildings of 50 units) in all multi-family districts in White Plains, though
it does set building size at 30 units in several Census Tract Block Groups, an exception opposed by WFP. The previous law
applied only in the downtown district. The affordable units will be made available to families earning between 60% and 120%
of area median income. The Council also tightened rules which have allowed developers to
"buy out" of building affordable housing by making payments to an Affordable Housing Assistance Fund. Henceforth, developers
will not be allowed to buy out unless they receive permission of the Common Council, and payments will be from $75,000 for
a studio to $240,000 for a three bedroom unit as opposed to the former fees which ranged from $30,000-$155,000.
Length of affordability was extended to 30 years with a 30 year renewal at the discretion of the Common Council, though The
Working Families Party had called for 99 years with a 99 year renewal. Members of the common
Council pledged to review the new regulations annually and amend them when necessary, and WFP intends to keep working to increase
the set-aside to 15% of units, to lower the income levels, to require set-asides in buildings of ten units or more throughout
the city, and to extend the terms of affordability to 99 years with a 99 year renewal. In addition WFP has called on the Common
Council to provide a "fast track" approval process as an incentive to those developers who set aside 20% or more of units
as affordable.
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New Rochelle Affordable Housing Gets New Life and Approval.
After initially being turned down by the County Legislature a 25 Unit affordable housing building has been approved by
the same legislature after compromises were made to the original plan.
County Legislaor Jim Maisano was adamantly against the original plan of providing housing for New Rochelle city workers,
seniors and veterans. Maisano said he was acting on the concerns of the people living in the two co-ops on the same
street on Clinton Place. The residents said they were upset because there was already little parking for residents and
the new building was adding only 18 more parking spots.
They did, however, say they would be happy with all veterans and senior housing.
We are happy to see a compromise has been found and feel proud that we may have had some part in pushing both sides closer
together. New Rochelle, like most of Westchester, is in serious need of affordable housing and the WFP injects that
problem into every conversation we have with political leaders.
If Westchester is to grow economically as a strong community we must make room for all income backgrounds or we
will find ourselves with just rich and poor and our middle class living an hour or two away in other counties. Our children
and grandparents will not be able to live in the same neighborhood and we will all be poorer for it.
On May 16, 2007 a major amendment to the Yonkers
Affordable Housing Ordinance pushed by the Westchester-Putnam Working Families Party was introduced in the City Council.
The current Affordable Housing Ordinance, put
in place as part of a 1988 desegregation ruling by Judge Leonard Sand of Federal District Court, calls for developers of multi-family
housing to set aside 10 to 20% of units as affordable housing.A recent
settlement in that court case allows the city to make severalamendments to the
ordinance, and the WFP has been lobbying for a permanent extension of the ordinance beyond its January 1, 2009 expiration
date.
The amendment also corrects a major flaw in the
existing ordinance that restricts the requirements for inclusionary housing to Northwest and East Yonkers,
by extending the ordinance city-wide.When the Affordable Housing Ordinance was
originally drafted, under pressure from the Court, the primary goal was to provide opportunity for low and middle-income people,
particularly minorities, to live in portions of the city outside of the Southwest section where they had been previously clustered.However, with the court’s requirements satisfied and major new high-end developments
coming into Southwest Yonkers, particularly near the waterfront and downtown areas, it is critically important that the city
also be creating new affordable housing opportunities so that average Yonkers citizens can afford to enjoy the new growth.
The affordable housing ordinance in Yonkers is
largely targeted at people making between 50 and 100% of the Westchester County Median Income ($48,250 to $96,500 for a family
of four).Affordable housing, which is sometimes called “workforce housing”,
is designed to provide homes for middle and working class people so that the teachers, city employees and factory workers,
the real backbone of the city of Yonkers, are able to afford to live here with their families.
With the help of Mary Dailey, WFP member and Yonkers
resident, Nina Dastur, an attorney for the Center for Community Change drafted the amended ordinance. Westchester-Putnam Working
Families Party is now spearheading a Yonkers Workforce Housing Coalition to assure that the amended ordinance is passed by
the City Council and enacted into law by the Mayor, and citizens who want to participate in that effort are encouraged to
contact WFP Chair Patrick Welsh at914.318.4044
WFP PUSHES EXTENSION OF YONKERS AFFORDABLE HOUSING ORDINANCE
There is a Crisis in Workforce Housing in Yonkers.
According to the Westchester County Affordable
Housing Needs Assessment in 2004:
21,143
families in Yonkers pay more than 30% of their income for rent (or more than 50% for home ownership costs), which exceeds
federal guidelines.
In
Southwest Yonkers (Zip Code 10705) 47% of renters and 37% of home owners are paying too much for housing, and as many as half
of these families are “severely cost burdened,” because they pay more than 50% of their income for rent.
3,300
families in Yonkers live in overcrowded housing.
The Working Families Party believes in people
centered development.An exclusive focus on high-end housing for affluent renters
and buyers will create negative impacts on current residents and is not in the public interest. To this end, WFP has joined
with other organizations in a Yonkers Workforce Housing Coalition.
The immediate goal is:
To
extend the life of the Yonkers
Affordable Housing Ordinance and to extend its coverage to Southwest Yonkers.The ordinance requires that:
Developers
of multi-family housing units for rental or sale provide 10%-20% of the units to families earning between 50% and 80% of median
income in Westchester
Units
be sold at a price or rented at a rent that does not exceed 30%of the annual gross income of the household occupying the unit.
The long-range goals are:
Comprehensive
city-wide planning for affordable housing development
Pro-active
site identification and acquisition
Comprehensive
strategy to preserve existing affordable housing
Increased
support for non-profit housing development
