Stick around - Westfair Communications

The migration of young professionals from Westchester County and the state is a prevalent problem that requires a multifaceted solution, a panel of government and policy people said.

The issue was discussed last week at a forum sponsored by the Westchester County Association, and the Young Professionals Advisory Committee, which is part of the WCA.

Between 1995 and 2005, the county lost 62,000 residents between the ages of 20 and 34, said Kevin McCarthy, senior associate at CB Richard Ellis.

McCarthy, also a co-chair of the young professionals committee, was one of many twenty-something professionals in the audience with the same concern: They make too much money to qualify for government-subsidized housing, but not enough to own a home and pay property taxes in Westchester County. The median price for a home in the county is around $750,000.

“This is an important issue and we”™re hoping to bring together the public and private sectors to discuss it,” McCarthy said.

New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson discussed some ways municipalities can foster an increase in middle-class or “accessible” housing for this demographic.

He said most of what is usually considered “affordable” housing is for those who make up to 80 percent of the area”™s median annual income. To help the young professional demographic with housing, he suggested raising the cap for housing subsidies to those who make 100 percent or even 120 percent of the median income.

“In New Rochelle, we go up to 100 percent,” to qualify for housing programs, he said.

He said the city also offers “density zoning” incentives to developers. For example, if a developer devoted 10 percent of a project to accessible housing, the city would allow them to build 15 percent more units, Bramson said.

Westchester County”™s median income is $66,560.

Another problem is that sometimes the rules of qualification for housing programs are restrictive, said Susan Habel, planning commissioner for the city of White Plains.

For example, if a young married couple who each make $45,000 per year live together, their combined income is too high to qualify for many “affordable housing” subsidies.

Habel said what might be even more important than housing-subsidy programs is to help out young home buyers with a down-payment-assistance program.

Another issue is the lack of new single-family homes being built, she said. In White Plains, and most of Westchester”™s other cities and villages, there is not much developable land available and it is often a political nightmare for a municipality to propose building up open spaces.

That”™s why White Plains and other cities have focused on increasing their densities in downtown areas, but Habel noted many of these projects are luxury buildings and not affordable to young professionals.

“In White Plains in 1998, 85 percent of our downtown was low-to-moderate income,” she said. “Now, it”™s all upper-market and luxury (housing). We”™re still missing the middle.”

Bruce Berg, senior vice president of Cappelli Enterprises Inc., agreed that it is hard to build on undeveloped land in Westchester County right now.

“It”™s a challenge to find land, and there”™s a lot of antidevelopment attitude around the county,” he said. “So we focus on downtown cores.”

Berg said while developers can allot a certain portion of a downtown development to middle-class housing, there are young couples or families who would rather live in a more suburban environment.

Even if a young couple can afford to buy a home in the county, oftentimes they still can”™t afford to pay the property tax on that home, said Alfred DelBello, chairman of the Westchester County Association.

A major reason for high property taxes in the county and the state is the large number of taxing entities in New York, he said. DelBello is part of a committee appointed by Gov. Eliot Spitzer to look at consolidating some of these entities.

He said housing subsidies can only do so much and that there needs to be a regional effort toward change.

“Subsidizing housing won”™t solve the whole problem,” DelBello said. “We need to look at city and town centers and intensify development there, and interconnect it with fast rail. And there needs to be inclusionary zoning (for middle-class housing),” he said.

He said the problem is regional because as more people who couldn”™t afford to live in New York City moved to Westchester, it made the county more expensive, and people who left Westchester for more northerly Hudson Valley counties are, in turn, making them unaffordable.

“I can see companies starting to leave or not relocating here because their employees can”™t afford to live here,” he said. “But I don”™t think that”™s going to happen because we”™re giving notice to this issue now.”