By: Donna Kimura
New York’s Westchester County will make a $51.6 million investment in affordable housing, under an agreement announced by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Justice Department.
The deal, which settles a three-year lawsuit, is expected to result in the construction of 750 units of affordable housing in overwhelmingly white neighborhoods in the county.
The agreement could have a sweeping effect on other communities nationwide.
“It’s very good news for developers, for-profit and not-for-profit, who have been interested in developing in communities that have been closed,” said Craig Gurian, executive director of the Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro New York (ADC).
Westchester County receives an annual Community Development Block Grant allocation from HUD, and as a condition of receiving this fund, it agrees to “affirmatively further fair housing.” From 2000 to 2008, the county certified that it had complied with this requirement.
ADC disputed the certification. A federal court then ruled that the county failed its legal obligation to explicitly analyze “the existence and impact of race discrimination on housing opportunities and choice in its jurisdiction.”
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