Westchester Case

Like more than a thousand other jurisdictions, Westchester County in New York has been a recipient of Community Development Block Grant and other federal housing funds. A condition to be eligible for federal housing grants is the promise to affirmatively further fair housing (AFFH); that is, to identify, analyze, and take the steps necessary to overcome the barriers to fair housing choice. When a jurisdiction seeks payment under its grant, it is making an implied representation that it has affirmatively furthered fair housing.

Over the six-year period from 2000 to 2006, Westchester received more than $50 million in federal funds, making its AFFH representations all along the way. But Westchester was defrauding American taxpayers. In fact, the County had no interest in removing barriers to fair housing choice, especially those erected and maintained by restrictive zoning on the part of its towns and village (more than 20 of whom still have African-American populations of less than 3.0 percent).

ADC undertook to challenge Westchester’s fraud and failure to AFFH by bringing a lawsuit under the federal False Claims Act. The evidence was so strong that, early in  2009, United States District Court Judge Denise Cote found as a matter of law that the County had “utterly failed” to meet its AFFH obligations during the false claims period (2000 to 2006), and that each and all of Westchester’s certifications that it had or would AFFH were “false or fraudulent.”

Faced with certain defeat on the remaining question of whether its false representations were made in reckless disregard or deliberate ignorance of their truth or falsity, Westchester decided to settle the case and enter into a consent decree (that is, a binding federal court order).

The overall financial scope of the settlement — $62.5 million — represents a sum greater than all of the community development and related funding that Westchester received from the federal government during the false claims period.

Most importantly, Westchester was prohibited from ignoring either the residential racial segregation that continues to plague it, or the municipal resistance to affordable housing development that stymies the possibility of changing those patterns. The County was required to initiate legal action against the towns and villages that continued to maintain barriers to fair housing choice, most notably zoning barriers.

Unfortunately, Westchester was given a signal early on by HUD, the court Monitor, and by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District that there was no appetite for making the kind of structural change contemplated by the consent decree. Westchester immediately began a pattern of resistance that has continued to this day. As documented in Cheating On Every Level, and later in a letter and report to the Court, the Government and the Monitor have allowed Westchester to get away with brazen violations of key requirements of the decree.

      

Read about the case, the consent decree, and the failure to enforce:

Monitor proposes that Westchester walk away scot-free
The Report, almost four years in the making, does not provide the Court with the necessary information and context to understand Westchester's failure to meet either its unit-specific requirements or several other of its core obligations, including its obligation to require its municipalities to remove zoning barriers.
Court closes its eyes to failures to enforce historic Westchester housing desegregation consent decree
Anti-Discrimination Center (ADC) is deeply disappointed by the decision by the court to ignore Westchester's years-long failure to obey core elements of the consent decree, to ignore the failure of the U.S. Attorney and the Monitor to enforce those elements, and to pretend, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that the decree is basically on track.
Fair Housing groups around the country demand Westchester enforcement
Ask court to consider fully the information and perspective offered by ADC and to order remedies proposed by ADC.
ADC court filing shows massive exclusionary zoning in Westchester, continued failure by Government and Monitor to focus on or enforce key parts of consent decree
Interfaith clergy leaders speak out on Westchester's non-compliance with its obligations under the federal housing desegregation court order
Consent decree "must be enforced completely and and enforced with passion and determination," says one. The housing to be built under the consent decree was intended "to be catalytic in impact," says another.
Enough! Start consent decree compliance
More than six years after Westchester was forced to enter into a federal court consent decree requiring the dismantling of zoning barriers to affordable housing, very little is understood about the actual requirements of that decree. The confusion is evident in a recent editorial in the Westchester Journal News. Featuring a call to “finish housing settlement,” the Editorial Board is apparently not aware that compliance with the consent decree has barely begun.
ADC Statement on November 19th Magistrate Judge decision
Another example of the wrongheadedness of the strategy of the U.S. Attorney and the Monitor to pretend that, in the main, the Westchester consent decree is on track.
HUD authority to withhold funds upheld; inadequacy of Government enforcement efforts exposed
Westchester challenge to being cut off because it didn't conduct proper zoning analysis decisively rejected. But the failure of the Government and the Monitor to take seriously the obligation to enforce the consent decree in court (the normal place to do so) again made clear.
Monitor identifies Westchester violation of consent decree
Supplemental report focuses on County's failure to take required actions in respect to one development and County's failure to have financing in place for a sufficient number of units. Monitor still not seeking action on broader issues.
In face of unrelenting Consent Decree violations, Monitor's latest report still leaves Westchester largely off the hook
Latest status report does begin to cite subset of County's violations, but remains wedded to the false narrative that "progress" continues to occur and adds additional "cheating units." Window-dressing changes to zoning that leave vast single-family areas highly segregated and untouched by affordable housing are lauded. Westchester's six years of across-the-board refusal to challenge municipalities who retain barriers to fair housing choice not discussed.

Pages