Taking Sides in Fight over NIMBYism

Link to --> Article in Units Magazine November 2009 on new focus on Fair Housing issues, including St. Bernard Parish, LA and Westchester County, NY cases

Housing Battle Reveals Post-Katrina Tensions

From: The New York Times
By: Campbell Robertson // October 3, 2009

CHALMETTE, La. — The parish of St. Bernard, a quiet, insular suburb just east of New Orleans, has in the end agreed to allow housing for low-income families.

But even though it is only a few hundred apartment units, it had to be ordered by a federal judge. The parish has fought desperately to prevent such housing and an influx of renters, at one point even approving a law that prohibited homeowners from renting to anyone other than a blood relative, before it was challenged and repealed.

The battle over low-income housing has been one of the most bitter that anyone in the middle-class, mostly white parish can remember, one that has stoked issues the region has been grappling with since Hurricane Katrina: anger at the federal government and long-simmering class and racial tensions.

It also reflects widespread anxiety about just how drastically the area changed after the floodwaters receded.

“I think people have adopted this issue as one that goes far beyond the reality of its impact,” said Craig Taffaro Jr., the parish president. “It tapped into the soul of our recovery.”

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Fight for affordable housing heats up

From: The Leader
By: Susan C. Moller

RUTHERFORD, NJ —The number of affordable housing units to be included in plans for the Highland Cross Redevelopment Area in Rutherford remains in dispute.

Linque-H.C. Partners, LLC, the developer that owns the controversial property east of Route 17, filed a lawsuit Friday, Sept. 18, challenging the 2008 regulations established by the state’s Council on Affordable Housing — the agency charged with insuring that the state’s court-mandated affordable housing quotas are met.

When Rutherford submitted its affordable housing plan to COAH, officials included Highland Cross as a possible location of low-income units, despite historic opposition from residents. By submitting the plan, borough officials were hopeful that Rutherford would be deemed compliant and protected from litigation-induced loss of zoning power.

But, the borough’s efforts, and the COAH regulations on which they were based, have not met with approval from Linque.

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Milbridge upholds building moratorium

From: Bangor Daily News
By: Sharon Kiley Mack // September 29, 2009

MILBRIDGE, Maine — In two separate votes Monday night, more than 165 Milbridge residents upheld a building moratorium that was enacted last June for multiunit housing.

In the first vote, which would have rescinded the entire moratorium, the vote was 65 yes, 100 no.

The second vote, which would have excluded from the moratorium Mano en Mano’s six-family housing unit proposed for Wyman Road, also was defeated but by a much smaller margin. The vote was 72 yes, 82 no.

The votes pave the way for a federal lawsuit filed by Mano en Mano against the town to proceed. A hearing on the suit had been scheduled for Friday, Oct. 2, but a continuance was granted earlier Monday.

If the town had voted to rescind the moratorium, the lawsuit would have been moot.

The court will set a new hearing date later this week.

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Don't apologize for helping create affordable housing

From: LoHud.com
September 26, 2009

Perhaps only in the upside-down world of Westchester would county legislators, in the midst of rampant unemployment, gripping recession and widespread economic dislocation, feel compelled to issue apologia for agreeing to build affordable housing. A half-century ago, John F. Kennedy (and doubtless his ghostwriter) gave the world "Profiles in Courage"; here in Westchester, following the Board of Legislators' approval this week of a $51 million settlement of a False Claims Act/fair housing lawsuit, taxpayers get treated to profiles in regret.

"We all know that we were in a bad situation, and we had to choose the best of a bad situation," said Legislator Michael Kaplowitz, D-Somers, a reluctant "Yes" vote for the settlement, which was approved, 12-5, Tuesday night. It obliges the county to help build some 750 units of affordable housing over the next seven years, most of it in communities that have thwarted such accommodations.

His colleague John Nonna, D-Pleasantville, who earlier had objected to any of the units coming into a portion of his district, issued a 1,250-word essay explaining his "difficult" vote for the agreement. "The important point is that we move forward to try to accomplish the settlement in cooperation with our towns and villages, the (government-appointed) monitor and federal government and be mindful and attentive to the concerns of our residents."

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Affordable housing laws aren't stopping segregation

From: washingtonexaminer.com
By: Rigel Oliveri // September 24, 2009

Affluent New York City suburb Westchester County recently agreed to spend more than $50 million to build or acquire 750 affordable housing units in order to help desegregate some of its almost entirely white towns and villages. It only did so because it had been sued.

In February, a federal court determined that Westchester had taken virtually no action to fulfill its promise to use millions of dollars in federal Community Development Block Grant money to further fair housing.

The level of residential racial segregation in the United States is pronounced. Of the 50 U.S. metropolitan areas with the largest black populations, all show a moderate to high level of segregation. Westchester is unusually high.

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Westchester County, NY Agrees to Add Housing in Landmark Settlement

From: Affordable Housing Finance
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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