Housing Task Force

Housing Task Force Meeting #7 Minutes Thursday, February 22, 2024 7pm Village Hall Conference Room Attendants: Arley Arno, Chester Edwards, Monica Fonseca, Jane Lippman, Catrina Shivers, Aldo Vitagliano, Andrew Weiss, Ursula Winchell Absent: Margaret Adamson, Lisa Cordasco, Kathy Pandekakes, Luis Yumbla Meeting opened at 7:04pm Motion to approve Feb 8th and Jan. 25th minutes was made and approved unanimously. Guest speaker Norma Drummond (Former resident, Village Planning Commissioner, Retired Commissioner of Planning for Westchester County, former Deputy Commissioner of Planning with focus on County’s Federal Housing and community Grants for affordable housing, helped to complete County’s Fair Housing agreement). History Fair Housing started 1968 with Fair Housing Act. Currently, HUD’s (Housing and Urban Development) premise is that it doesn’t want communities to continue to look like themselves. Who are least likely to apply for affordable housing in a given community? In other words, who does not currently live within your village. Three municipalities in Westchester are majority minority, Port Chester being one and therefore, under HUD premise of least likely to apply, would be one of few communities that should be marketing to white people. Least likely to apply is theme of HUD’s stance on Affirmative Fair Housing. As outcome of housing settlement, County had to implement Affirmative Fair Housing Marketing Plan, which meant any housing development that received County funding, or had to comply with settlement agreement (units that would be counted toward County agreement), had to affirmatively market their affordable units. How much marketing that developers had to do was determined by how many units they were building. They had to hire non-profit to do marketing. During Fair Housing Agreement the non profit was Housing Action Council; it is now Westchester Residential Opportunities (WRO). They had to market to housing organizations in the 9 county region (5 counties of NYC, Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, and Fairfield). What does Port Chester’s code say about affordable units? If they have to comply with Westchester County guidelines, then that’s the standard (Affirmative Fair Housing Marketing Plan) that must be followed. There was a caveat that allowed County to give certain preferences when they could show that the population of the subgroup was diverse. It was not allowed to be residency preferences, unless it was a specific public housing that was being redeveloped. HUD did not want to see public housing residents displaced. Only preference that was granted was in Town of Cortlandt right outside of Montrose VA hospital for veterans. Veterans are a diverse population so they were allowed to give preference. County was asked to consider giving preference to other groups, like Firefighters, EMS, artists, nurses but those groups were not diverse. In order to determine if the specific population of preference met the criteria, the population was compared with Westchester’s population, and if it did not meet population diversity, it was denied. County’s required marketing plan, is not first come first serve, but instead, is done via lottery, conducted in a public place within the 9 county region, after either 90 or 120 days. County found that it’s marketing plan was attracting diverse group of applications. However, 2/3 and 3/4 of applications came from within the local municipality being marketed. The applicants were primarily people who already lived in Westchester or commuted to Westchester for work, local residents, or those with a local connection. Some were elderly parents looking to move back to Westchester to be near their children. Questions and Answers Fair Housing Settlement. What was the settlement. What are the grants. How much money was there and is there any money left? Anti-discrimination Center of Metro New York filed a discrimination suit against Westchester County in 2005. In 2009, Westchester County, without admitting guilt, entered into settlement agreement requiring county to implement a plan for Fair Affordable Housing, the biggest piece being the creation of 750 fair and affordable housing units. Many municipalities within the county, had population where less than 3% was non white. HUD pulled back $30 million from the County, and county paid $32.5 million for legal fees, and was obligated to put an additional $50 million aside to implement the creation of 750 affordable units. Currently, the units are built, occupied, and money is spent as it was completed in 2017. There were 31 municipalities affected, based on 3 different criteria, and Port Chester wasn’t one. Lawsuit required HUD to quickly define affirmatively furthering fair housing, and that’s where the least likely to apply came up. HUD was very clear that they do not want preferences based on current residency. Would displaced residents be an exception? It would depend on whether housing was getting federal funding. With no federal funding involved, the developer could let former displaced residents move in. Affordability guidelines/AMI Standard used is that no one should be paying more than 30% of income on housing. Affordable unites are priced based on affordable guidelines. It’s usually priced at the higher end of affordable limits (80%AMI). NYS sets a ratio where a one-bedroom apartment is meant for 1 and 1/2 people, and thus uses income of 1 and 1/2 people to come up with amount of rent. That’s why, when you look at rates, some consider them too high for single person. New P.C. zoning states that if a project has 10 or more units, there has to be 10% affordable units set aside, and affordability is based on 60% of Westchester County AMI. If developers required to do 10% under village code, the county wouldn’t give them any subsidy. If they did more than 10% set aside or lowered AMI threshold, then the county would consider subsidy. Does the code say that units have to comply with Westchester County affordable program or is it just using Westchester County AMI guideline?. If it’s only set at AMI, then who is giving guidance to these developers? If a family’s income increases are they allowed to stay at rental levels they applied with? Mitchell Lama units required that you had to qualify to move in but people never left so there was no turnover. Tenants could see their income increase but there was no follow up on verifying whether existing residents still qualified. Are special needs or seniors considered for preference and considered diverse? There are 2 caveats for seniors that the New York State Human Rights Commission will consider when public subsidies are involved: 62 or older where every member of household must be 62 or older 55 and older where only 1 member of household must be 55 or older. To get either approved you have to get waiver from NYS Human Rights Commission. They generally grant it if you can demonstrate other senior housing within the community. Special needs: No caveat beyond that any subsidized unit has to have 5% of units as handicap accessible. If not taking subsidy, then the developer is only subject to local building codes. When does developer have to market to 9 county region? In 2008 with housing recession, no market rate housing was being built, so market rate developers became affordable housing developers. Since then it’s kind of petered out because interest rates are up. If a project were approved under P.C. code, requiring 10% affordable units set aside, they would not be eligible for subsidy from county unless they went over and above 10%. or wanted to make units more affordable than what village code requirement which is now set at 60% county AMI. Generally, NYS wouldn’t get involved either with subsidy, unless they went beyond obligations of code, and NYS administers the federal money as well. Are county subsidies enticing to developers? There are 2 pots of subsidies that Westchester County offers, New Homeland Acquisition Program and Housing Implementation Program that are county bonds. County declared in 1992 that affordable housing is a public purpose, and so the county can issue municipal bonds to cover costs associated with affordable housing. County has only been able to use bonds to purchase land and then sell property to developer for $1. Underwriting cost of property goes far. They can also use bonds for infrastructure associated with building affordable housing. One example is the senior housing on S Regent. The County paid for redevelopment of South and North Regent and Westchester Ave intersection from infrastructures fund because new senior housing residents would need to cross the street. There is plenty of money and it’s not that hard to get those subsidies, but very few subsidies for home ownership. Big subsidy that most developers go after is the Low Income Housing Tax credit (LIHTC) where investors give money up front to developers and then get 10 years of tax credits off federal and/or state taxes. That is very attractive to developers because they get the money up front and have to borrow less, and attractive to investors for the tax deferral. There are limits on how many tax credits are available and the funding for those. If developer takes those type of subsidy, New York State requires a Fair Housing Marketing Plan but, it’s not as extensive as Westchester County has. County programs can cover units whether home ownership or rental. New York State, however, has one program under Affordable Housing Corporation for home ownership and it’s only $40,000 per unit. Section 8 Is there possibility to expand section 8 to cover units already built? Section 8 was created in 1970’s with intent that family would get subsidy for 5 years, and then the subsidy would turn over to new family. That did not happen. Many families need subsidy for more than 5 years (like seniors for example). It has not expanded in years because the Federal Government has had contingency budgets that do not factor increases for this program. Amount of households able to get assisted over the years has reduced because costs of rents have increased, but federal budget for Section 8 has not. Tenant-based and Project-based HUD determined that 25% of building be project based. With exception of seniors at 50%, in NYS if you want 25% project-based vouchers, they are tied to state program called ESSHI (Empire State Supporting Housing Initiative). Idea is that families being assisted with Section 8 should be able to also get assistance from non-profit agencies to meet their needs. An example is the South Regent Senior Housing which has some units for frail elderly (85 and older or disabled). These frail populations could also be formerly homeless, or victims of domestic violence. The program is meant to help frail populations do well in stable housing. So many families that are desperate to get out of shelters take first apartment available. Too many Section 8 tenants were losing assistance because it wasn’t the right housing or they couldn’t follow rules for the housing. Question raised on neighborhood character issues on development (density vs aesthetics) County has been clear that any affordable housing should be what local municipality wants. County Planning Board has commented in the past about the skyline. Otherwise, County does not get involved in what building will look like. There is financial connection with how many units you need to make a development work. NYS used to say they would fund only 25, then 50 and recently NYS has said it will only fund developments of 100 units or more, which is extremely large for smaller municipalities. New Rochelle has tiered affordability. How could we encourage a developer to offer multiple tiers? New Rochelle’s code also says it will only be affordable for 30 years. So, the question is what happens after 30 years. Housing issues last a lot longer than 10, 20, or even 30 years. County Planning has commented to New Rochelle that limiting to 30 years is not great. Renters should be households with lower income. When you get to 80% of AMI, it’s usually people with better credit and closer to home ownership. 80% AMI is the standard for ownership assistance. NYS has gone to income averaging, so as long as the average of affordable units is 60% AMI, they allow building to have mixes of units We need to find out if our code is going by county guidelines or just using recommendation of AMI. Many municipalities made their zoning codes comply to county program but it’s unclear if Port Chester did so. Mixed incomes in buildings make sense but you have to follow guidelines in place and make whatever changes simple for developers. Resolution Proposal was discussed. One member feels it’s important for our group to put something out early that says, “let's start building to create affordable units.” The proposed resolution discussion will be put on the agenda for next meeting. Do we have access to Port Chester Code? Monica will follow up with Curt regarding what affordable housing mandates exist within the code. Should we find out occupancy of existing newer building, like Mariner or Castle? One member feels it’s premature to put out resolution until we know what the code says and what should potentially change with regard to affordable housing. We can’t dictate what developers will do to fund projects. We can only make recommendations to the BOT. Could IDA be used to help incentivize developers? Meeting closed at 8:07, with motion passed unanimously