Deeds and Leases

By now most of you have heard about the desegregation case that was announced earlier this week that will require that Westchester County spend $50 million to build or acquire 750 residences for low-to-moderate income people in Villages and Towns identified as having an African-American population of 3% or less, or a Hispanic population of 7% of the total population or less. The County will have seven years to comply with the ruling. Cities in the County, such as Yonkers, which is already operating under a separate consent decree are not included.

You can only imagine the questions and concerns being voiced by residents. I like most people believe that everyone should have the same access to housing, regardless of who they are or inclusion in a “protected class” under the Fair Housing Act. To exclude someone because of race is wrong. Period.

However, this goes much farther than that, and the ruling concerns me, as did the Yonkers desegregation case over a decade ago. The artificial rearrangement of society because of race as the primary factor (which to me is counter-intuitive to the FHA),  is also wrong.

Every year all agents in my company go through mandatory FHA training given by Westchester Residential Opportunities, which is the Westchester County Fair Housing “compliance” organization. They do a great job. I do remember one year when they made a statement that has stuck with me:

“Economic Discrimination is Completely Legal.”

Again, they said it, I did not. However, while the choice of words may not be elegant, the thrust of the comment makes sense. In my personal opinion, housing is a right, but where you live should depend on what you can afford.

Bronxville Village for example is a target of this desegregation order. As we know Bronxville is one of the most expensive communities to purchase a home. A single family residence typically costs over a million dollars, and even a two bedroom coop can be 0ver $400,000.

I love Bronxville, it is a beautiful well kept community and I would love to live there. But unfortunately, I cannot afford it. I also have a disability, making me part of a ‘protected class.” Does that suggest that I am being discriminated against? OF COURSE NOT! I simply cannot afford to live there. For me there are plenty of other alternatives out there in Westchester that are in my price range, that are places that I would be willing to live.

That is the point: there are always alternatives.

In Yonkers as part of the desegregation case any new construction requires that 10% of the units in a new rental be set aside for ‘qualifying apartments” under the rules. Nothing terrible about that, however it also comes with a hidden bomb: zoning and planning rules are largely nullified, public comment about the new development is muted, and the approvals are fast tracked. This rides roughshod over legitimate concerns in a neighborhood that has nothing to do with race; rather with density, parking and the destruction of green space.

This has happened to me, directly across the street from where I live. I will not go into details as it is now a number of years ago, suffice it to say that for a total of two low/moderate income apartments, the developer got 90% of what they wanted, and the “process’ ran roughshod over neighborhood concerns. What we ended up getting is many trees cut down, unfulfilled promises from the developer to improve his property and the surrounding neighborhood, and a garbage dump eyesore for everyone to see.

For two, that’s TWO apartments.

Was it worth the disruption, diminution in values for the years it took to construct this building and the ongoing issues for that? I think not. So the question remains, at what cost to an existing stable community does it become worth it to muck things up? There is little developable land in Bronxville for example; most lots were improved by the 1930′s. So will the county be buying million dollar homes to comply? Does that make sense?

In my practice if a financially qualified buyer wants to see a property in the Village of Bronxville, Scarsdale or anywhere else, I do not consider “who” they are. Their money is green and that is the color that counts.

And that is the way it should be.