How's that "intent to be pro-housing community" working in Westchester?

September 18, 2024 — Rather than the Housing Compact that Gov. Hochul proposed in 2023 and that the state legislature, to its shame, rejected out of hand, New York has a voluntary, no-teeth program program called “Pro-Housing Communities.” Those certified as pro-housing communities have access to several discretionary funding programs. Certification can be achieved either by demonstrated housing growth or by passing a resolution, which is a “pledge” to have the municipality “endeavor” to take several steps:

  1. Streamlining permitting for multifamily housing, affordable housing, accessible housing, accessory dwelling units, and supportive housing.
     
  2. Adopting policies that affirmatively further fair housing.
     
  3. Incorporating regional housing needs into planning decisions.
     
  4. Increasing development capacity for residential uses.
     
  5. Enacting policies that encourage a broad range of housing development, including multifamily housing, affordable housing, accessible housing, accessory dwelling units, and supportive housing.
     

The above are good things, but you don’t have to be an experienced lawyer (or government official) to see that even those municipalities that “step up” are hardly entering into ironclad obligations.

And what about municipalities that like their exclusion and residential racial segregation just the way they have it? We’ve known for decades that these municipalities don’t volunteer to change. (That’s why Gov. Hochul introdcued the Housing Compact in the first place.)

Westchester’s experience so far is instructive. Of the 12 municipalties that have submitted a letter of intent, only two have a Black population that is 3 percent or less (highlighted in red). That’s less than one-fourth of the countywide average. 5 of the 12 have Hispanic population well above the countywide average (highlighted in yellow).

And the municipalities that have NOT submitted a letter of intent? 21 of 31 have Black population of 3 percent or less (again, highlighted in red).

All 31 municipalities NOT submitting a letter of intent are majority-White. Only 4 of 12 of the municipalities submitting letters of intent are majority-White.

The difference in profiles is both striking and … altogether unsurprising.