By Rosemarie Noonan and Jean Pollak
Doubling up with their relatives, a young couple who received home ownership counseling is about to buy a home in Rye. A senior citizen now lives near her son because of affordable rental apartments developed in Somers. A single parent has an affordable apartment because a faith-based organization constructed a two-family home in Ardsley. A single parent feels safe in her new apartment in Cortlandt.
What do these activities have in common? Each was made possible by community groups and private developers working in partnership with the Housing Action Council (HAC) where we are celebrating 40 years of service to the community.
Developing affordable housing isn”™t easy. Land in Westchester and neighboring counties is expensive and building costs are high. Compounding these factors, private and not-for-profit developers find the multilayers of regulation to obtain approvals for affordable housing daunting and public funding has been shrinking.
This is where HAC comes in. Since 1974, we have facilitated the production and preservation of permanent housing for low and moderate-income households and special-needs populations. With the expertise of our board and professional staff we have assisted in the development of more than 3,500 units and have leveraged more than $700 million in public and private funding to create affordable rental and ownership housing.
HAC provides technical support in a variety of ways. For example, for a community group like A-HOME, we have served as a development consultant for more than 25 years helping assess the financial viability of potential developments, securing private and public funding and helping them through the development process. With HAC”™s help, A-HOME now provides affordable housing for very low income and special-needs populations in Pound Ridge, South Salem, Croton Falls, Katonah, Bedford Hills, Chappaqua, Thornwood and Mount Kisco.
With our assistance, the Sharing Community in Yonkers analyzed the feasibility of sites, secured the funding and assisted navigation of the development process. As a result, transitional housing for 13 homeless singles, permanent affordable housing for 30 formerly homeless individuals, 20 apartments for people with special needs were created. Additionally, with HAC”™s assistance the Sharing Community acquired and operates Broadway Manor for 16 individuals in transition and provides permanent housing for 10 formerly homeless individuals.
HAC has worked closely with the municipal groups where we analyze the housing needs in their communities and help them review town land-use policies in the context of providing more affordable housing. In Somers, for example, with HAC”™s help 73 rental housing units for seniors were created. HAC took the lead in negotiating the purchase of the property, securing public funding and marketing the housing.
HAC has recently launched its Acquisition and Rehabilitation Program with support and encouragement from Westchester County. We are developing one- and two-family homes in Buchanan, Peekskill, Pleasantville, Tarrytown and Eastchester to be sold or rented to families of modest income.
Since the inception of our homeownership counseling services in 1996, HAC has enabled nearly 1,000 low- and moderate-income households to become and remain homeowners having fixed rate mortgages with reasonable rates and terms. Since 1996, we have counseled more than 8,500 households.
When the city of Yonkers settled a 27-year-old housing desegregation case, we stepped in to manage the Yonkers Affordable Housing Office, which was responsible for implementing the housing remedy order. We assisted more than 400 families to buy homes in areas with low percentages of African-American/Black and/or Hispanic Latino populations and helped more than 200 households make integrative moves through a rental assistance program.
Today, HAC is working closely with the county in facilitating the development of housing in communities affected by the HUD housing settlement and with marketing the units.
In 2001, the United Way of Westchester and Putnam recognized that the greatest need in the area was for more affordable housing. We were designated to oversee the then newly formed Community Housing Resource Center (CHRC) that is dedicated to creating a more favorable climate in the Hudson Valley for affordable housing. The center identifies, trains and assists community leaders to advocate for housing in their communities.
In collaboration with Pace University School of Law”™s Land Use Law Center, HAC and CHRC have developed a Land Use Leadership Alliance for housing, a training program designed for local officials and community leaders to develop leadership and advocacy skills to create more fair and affordable housing in order to maintain viable and diverse communities throughout the Hudson Valley region.
Homes for Westchester is our newest and broadest partnership, a collaboration with Allied Community Enterprises, Westhab, Westchester Residential Opportunities and Community Capital New York, nonprofits that serve Westchester and beyond, along with The Business Council of Westchester, Westchester County Association, African American Men of Westchester, Westchester Hispanic Coalition and others. The coalition advances healthy, vibrant communities that are racially, ethnically and economically diverse by seeking to expand public and private investment, streamline the approval process by advocating for new regulations for alternative technologies for treatment of waste water and for a review of the impediments in the environmental review process.
The need for more affordable housing is acute. There is a well-documented disconnect between housing prices and wages in Westchester. The median-priced home in Westchester is $619,000. To purchase this would require an annual family income in the range of $180,000, which is beyond the range of over a quarter of a million Westchester households. Meanwhile, the average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,600, requiring an annual average income of over $60,000. This prices-out some 110,000 households making less than $60,000 each year and results in overcrowding and substandard housing conditions.
Despite all the difficulties, the Housing Action Council remains dedicated to our mission of providing more fair and affordable housing. And we continue to partner with nonprofit organizations, government agencies and private developers and lenders like the three we will honor at our Oct. 29th anniversary event: The Community Preservation Corp., the Kearney Realty and Development Group and Wilder Balter Partners. As private developers and a lender they have taken on the challenge of providing and financing affordable housing. With continued cooperation with partners like these, the Hudson Valley can and will be successful in addressing its community housing needs.
Rosemarie Noonan is the executive director of the Housing Action Council in Tarrytown. She can be reached at rnoonan@affordablehomes.org.
Jean Pollak is a member of the Housing Action Council”™s board of directors.
