Attorney James E. Johnson, the court-appointed monitor in Westchester’s fair housing/False Claims Act case, will appear in an Editorial Spotlight interview 11 a.m. Wednesday on LoHud.com.
Over the next seven years, Westchester must build 750 units of affordable housing, most of them in overwhelmingly white communities that have long shunned or discouraged such housing. The obligation arises from a consent degree brokered last year by the Spano administration and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and approved by the U.S. District Court. HUD entered the case after the nonprofit Anti-Discrimination Center of New York, a fair housing group, successfully argued in a lawsuit that Westchester had failed to discharge its fair housing obligations, despite accepting millions of dollars in federal funds and pledging that it had.
Under the agreement, the county must affirmatively market the units in Westchester and nearby communities with large non-white populations, though the housing will be available to all income-eligible populations. Johnson recently told the federal court that the county’s most recent plan for implementing terms of the consent decree “falls short of a true plan to comply with either the stipulation’s specific terms or its overarching goal of building a more integrated Westchester.”
Watch the interview at www.lohud.com/editorialspotlight; to submit a question during the interview, engage the CoverItLive feature on the right side of your screen.
2 Comments
The phrase, “its overarching goal of building a more integrated Westchester,” does not appear in the settlement document. As Johnson’s interpretation, it should have no bearing on the settlement. Before the County Board of Legislators voted for this disastrous settlement, they claimed that even if all of the selected housing applicants ended up being White, the terms of the settlement would be fulfilled. Now we see slippery Johnson, with his foot in the door, trying to change the agreement into one in which the result would have to be “a more integrated Westchester.” The best solution is to elect a new Congress that will amend all housing laws to exclude any requirement to “affirmatively further fair housing.”
Jim Russell
Candidate for the 18th Congressional District
Jim@RussellforCongress.com
What I don’t understand is how anyone can say that Westchester did not develop affordable housing or why there is a need for a court-appointed monitor now?
In 2005 and 2006 Lazz Developers of Port Chester built 51 affordable housing units in and around Port Chester. HUD Director Sean Moss was at the ribbon cutting with Andy Spano. This was financed by HUD and the taxpayers of Westchester.
Louis Larizza (Lazz) and other developers eyed the Fox Island Section for a condominium project. Port Chester wanted to avoid another eminent domain battle. These “developments” magically morphed into “affordable housing” projects. Now Westchester is being “forced” to develop housing. This whole housing thing, the “Westchester Housing Settlement” is starting to reek. I think the residents of Westchester have been had.
The real estate market is down. But if developers can get HUD involved I guess business will be booming.