COMMITTEE ON COMMUNITY AFFAIRS
Joint Meeting with Committees on Housing, Budget & Appropriations, Environment and Legislation
MINUTES: MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2004, 3:00 PM
IN ATTENDANCE:
CA: Legislators José Alvarado, Chair, Thomas Abinanti, Rob Astorino, Lois Bronz, William Ryan; HO: Legislators Lois Bronz, Chair, José Alvarado, Rob Astorino, Vito Pinto; B&A: Legislators Michael Kaplowitz, Chair, Thomas Abinanti, Lois Bronz, Marty Rogowsky, Ursula LaMotte, Andrea Stewart-Cousins; ENV: Legislators Thomas Abinanti, Chair, Ursula LaMotte; LEG: Legislators Marty Rogowsky, Chair, Thomas Abinanti, Lois Bronz, Vito Pinto, Andrea Stewart-Cousins
OTHERS:
BOL STAFF: Barbara Dodds, Tara Bernard; CEO: William Randolph, Kevin Ryan; PLANNING: Nancy MacMillan; LAW: Elizabeth Cipollo; HOUSING OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION: George Raymond, Richard Hyman; LWVW: Karen Schatzel, Jean Pollack, Kathy Sundaram; WORKING FAMILIES: David Schwartz; HOUSING ACTION COUNCIL: Alan Gordon; JOURNAL NEWS: Elizabeth Ganga; CITIZEN’S CAMPAIGN FOR THE ENVIRONMENT: Maureen Dolan
ITEMS DISCUSSED:
Housing Opportunity Commission Action Plan
Resolution Supporting Action Plan
Legislator Bronz opened the meeting and with quorums present, the chairs of the Housing, Community Affairs, Budget & Appropriations, Legislation and Environment Committees called their committees to order. Legislator Bronz said the action plan to be discussed was circulated among the legislators in mid-September for comments. Concerns have been indicated on the issue of the Right of First Refusal, some of the language and some of the intent. Also a Planning Dept. memo received earlier will be circulated with some questions and answers about the County’s New Homes Acquisition Program. She then invited George Raymond, Chair and Richard Hyman of the Housing Opportunity Commission (HOC) to the table.
Mr. Raymond stated that the Housing Action Plan (the plan) was based upon the new research report done by Rutgers University on what the County’s housing needs are for 2000-2015. They concluded about 10,000 units are needed of which about 9,000 are expected to come from the private sector unaided without subsidy or other government intervention. We have ten years in which to satisfy the balance. He summarized some of the recommendations proposed in the action plan:
Public relations and education
County programs such as the Housing Implementation Fund (HIF), which helps with infrastructure, and the New Homes Land Acquisition Program should have high priority continued funding.
An amendment to the Right of First Refusal provision is suggested for projects approved by the Planning Board and the local municipalities as appropriate.
A Countywide leadership organization that would put housing higher on the priority list.
The Planning Bd. should review the status of items previously proposed.
Priority should be given to litigation dealing with affordable housing.
Research legislation that might be applicable here.
Consolidation of Section 8 offices.
Leg. Abinanti asked how Mr. Raymond defined affordable housing. Raymond: housing that is limited to households earning less than 80% of the County median income and costs them less than 30% of their gross income.
Leg. Rogowsky--The average rent in Port Chester is very high but very poor people are living in crowded conditions. There are people living below the poverty line but not living in affordable housing. How do you factor that into the definition? Richard Hyman: Rutgers said people have to live in overcrowded conditions because there aren’t enough units. 7,273 units countywide were considered overcrowded.
Abinanti—Referring to “conflict with open-space objectives” in the report, is the implication that people try to preserve open space because they don’t want housing? Raymond: No, the HOC has met with the Westchester Land Trust and conservation community and issued a joint statement on how these two things fit together. Bronz: The statement should be distributed.
Abinanti—My understanding is that if the municipality accepts a project there is no problem with Right of First Refusal. What kind of changes would be made to the legislation? Hyman: There are circumstances where different bodies of local government have different responsibilities. For example, the local planning board is required by law to approve site plans. but the town board may overrule its own planning board and say it wants to buy the land for a dollar. When affordable housing is the issue, we don’t think the right of first refusal should be applied. We want it to be similar to the HOME program through HUD—a grant of money for potential projects.
Leg. Kaplowitz--How do we get the resources to do this job? The subsidy amount per unit seems to average about $50,000, with 10,000 units you are looking at a $500 million program. Raymond: This is what Rutgers found to be the need, not necessarily what is going to happen. Kaplowitz--We have done an excellent job on the County level to address this problem. Where are the federal dollars that started to dry up in the early 80‘s? Where is the leadership at the state level to address this? Where’s the partnership? How can you ask the northeast quadrant towns to build affordable housing when they have no capacity to deal with the infrastructure and building effects the drinking water which effects everyone else? We have to mobilize the Westchester delegation.
Abinanti—While we have a ton of programs for helping people that make $75,000 and live in some of our nicer communities, I’m more concerned about the senior citizens living on social security who have lived in Westchester all there lives and want to stay here and the people with disabilities who live at home with their parents because they have no place to go.
Hyman--In the 2003 report on the New Homes Land Acquisition Program, 68.3 % of funds went to senior housing and 83.2% went to people earning less than 60% not 80%. An absolute target may be something you want to address.
Leg. Stewart-Cousins—We all agree that one of the things we might want to do in that first resolve paragraph is to advance people with disabilities and seniors as a priority and the basis by which we go forward.
Abinanti--Good suggestion, we have to take a look at that resolution. We have to set forth a housing policy for the BOL.
Leg. Pinto—In my district, any new construction, especially in the form of apartments, has to have a percentage for the disabled. Building codes require it. Let’s look at our own policy
Kaplowitz--Any resolution that is a lightning rod creates barriers and takes away from doing the job. Does this plan adequately resolve the problem of overcrowding in some communities? Isn’t that where the opportunity should be given? Bronz--One of the reasons the County and United Way established the Housing Resource Center was to help specific communities address their needs.
Leg. LaMotte—In my district in the Croton Watershed, there are restrictions from the State and New York City, and towns find it difficult to find land for affordable housing or any housing since there are sensitive lands that we don’t want to build on. Also, people need to be able to get to transportation.
Bronz--So we have asked that workforce housing, transportation, job availability be included as high concerns.
Leg. Astorino--Some communities might disagree with the strict definition of affordable housing with regard to what is omitted in this and that is accessory apartments. In Mt. Pleasant they now have 153 legal accessory apartments not to mention how many illegals there are. The minimum is 600 to 1000 sq ft, a fairly comfortable living space. Hyman: If the income of the renters is limited and the rent they pay is limited then those units will be counted toward the allotment.
Kaplowitz—If housing is put in Yonkers and Port Chester and other places, you get more bang for the buck. That’s putting the housing where the people are—their families are there, their jobs are there, public transportation is there and we do it for people who are way down the income scale. Hyman—We do have to be careful. We don’t want to say you can only live in certain parts of the county. There should be opportunities for people who are working up in Somers and have to commute to south west Yonkers.
Leg. Alvarado--I’ve voted for every affordable housing project since I’ve been here even though not one was in Yonkers. I would have hoped that we didn’t attack this plan. The easiest thing to do is tear this to pieces—this is not going to go away by just passing the buck. Let’s pass the resolution.
Chairman Ryan--Over the past few years we have gotten out of the trap of putting money in the hands of a developer and have it get lost in the construction process. Through our New Homes Program, we’re doing something very clean, very identifiable—we participate in the project and we purchase property. We know what the value is and we know what we were conveying to the developer. We’ve come up with ways in which government can be helpful. Some of the issues discussed today are legitimate questions. We have to make sure that we don’t damage and fatally undermine the good work that’s been done up to this point.
I’m also concerned about County assets. Because of the way the right of first refusal is set up, good projects like affordable housing can come to a grinding halt because a community would be given the right to step in and acquire for a dollar, County property that may be of substantial value. Many of us thought the right of first refusal was more for the disposition of residual property not parcels that have substantial value on the open market. But communities can step in and buy it for one dollar to build a park when the sole purpose is to stop the County from carrying out a legitimate government purpose.
Martha Gordon noted that instead of another layer of organization, perhaps one of the existing housing orgs can be charged to lead this.
Legislator Bronz concluded the meeting—it is clear we are not going to solve this problem this afternoon and we will continue this discussion another time, she said. Legislator Bronz adjourned Housing, Legislator Alvarado--Community Affairs, Legislator Kaplowitz--Budget & Appropriations, Legislator Rogowsky--Legislation, Legislator Abinanti--Environment.
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