Westchester coalition hosts affordable housing teach-in

The Westchester Workforce Housing Coalition of nonprofit and business groups will sponsor a teach-in and call to action on affordable and workforce housing in the county from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the White Plains Library at 100 Martine Ave.

Calling Westchester “among the most economically and racially segregated in the U.S.” of suburban counties, teach-in organizers said a key element of the event will be the development of strategies to confront exclusionary zoning in municipalities. That discussion will be led by a panel that includes Assemblywoman Shelley Mayer, a Democrat from Yonkers; Monica Grant, campaign organizer at The Black Institute in New York City, and Rev. Troy DeCohen of Interfaith Clergy for Social Action, an association of more than 50 churches and synagogues in Westchester.

The evening”™s featured speaker will be Craig Gurian, an attorney and executive director of the Anti-Discrimination Center, the New York City organization whose federal lawsuit against Westchester County for failing to further fair housing in the county resulted in the 2009 court order requiring the county to build 750 housing units in communities with low minority populations. Teach-in organizers said Gurian will focus on the failure to enforce that court order by the county, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the federal court monitor of Westchester”™s fair-housing compliance and what should be done about it.

Joseph Czajka, senior vice president at Pattern for Progress, the nonprofit regional planning group in Newburgh, will speak about trends in the housing market and how the increasing housing cost burden hinders economic development and efforts to attract and retain millennials.

Kevin Dwarka, an urban planner and senior fellow at the Pace University Land Use Law Center, will discuss the impact of “not in my backyard” community opposition in zoning battles and how to overcome it with best practices.

The Rev. Betty Tom, pastor of First Presbyterian Church Mount Vernon, will speak on the ethical and moral responsibility to develop affordable housing as part of a just society.

David McKay Wilson, columnist at The Journal News, will discuss the role of the press in driving change.

Housing coalition members hosting the event are DeCohen, Alexander H. Roberts, executive director of Community Housing Innovations Inc., and James Killoran, executive director of Westchester Habitat for Humanity.