Housing Coalition demands affordable units and Consent Decree compliance

April 10, 2015 — A coalition of more than a dozen Westchester housing and civil rights groups and advocates is continuing to press its fight that Harrison and other towns and villages build affordable housing with desegregation potential.  The Westchester Workforce Housing Coalition, which includes Westchester Habitat for Humanity, the White Plains/Greenburgh NAACP, the Hispanic Housing Coalition, and the Westchester Working Families Party, sent a letter yesterday to the county executive asking that he intervene to see that affordable housing begins to be incorporated into new housing in Harrison.

At this time, there are housing developments proposed to contain 463 housing units in the town review process in Harrison.  Of these units, zero are affordable.

Citing the fact that “[e]xclusionary zoning discriminates against working families and minorities and has produced an exodus of young adults from the county,” the Coalition demanded that the county executive fulfill his obligations to have Harrison make the developments inclusionary, and “more generally to press Harrison and other communities to ease highly restrictive zoning.”

The Coalition’s letter concluded by noting that, “[a]bsent voluntary compliance, your obligation under the Consent Decree is to initiate legal action pursuant to the Berenson and County of Monroe line of cases, as well as the Fair Housing Act.”