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Congratulations to the Anti-Discrimination Center on Westchester County, NY housing lawsuit

with 5 comments

When I was still living in Westchester County, NY two years ago (I’m now in DC) one of the major concerns of the Westchester/Putnam Working Families Party chapter was affordable housing in the county. It would now appear thanks to a lawsuit filed by the Anti-Discrimination Center and with help from the Obama administration, affordable housing may now become a reality in Westchester.

Westchester County entered into a landmark desegregation agreement on Monday that would compel it to create hundreds of houses and apartments for moderate-income people in overwhelmingly white communities and aggressively market them to nonwhites in Westchester and New York City.

The agreement, if ratified by the county’s Board of Legislators, would settle a lawsuit filed by an antidiscrimination group and could become a template for increased scrutiny of local governments’ housing policies by the Obama administration.

“This is consistent with the president’s desire to see a fully integrated society,” said Ron Sims, the deputy secretary of housing and urban development, which helped broker the settlement along with the Justice Department. “Until now, we tended to lay dormant. This is historic, because we are going to hold people’s feet to the fire.”

This was always a major problem and it never had to be this way. People deserve an opportunity to move up in the world and on to better things. Westchester County is full of opportunity that everyone should have the chance to partake in. At least now there will be some progress towards a more equal county for everyone. I hope that the County Board of Legislators will ratify the agreement. The board is a progressive one so the future does look bright.

When I was a teenager in the Bronx after my father died when I was fourteen. My mother saved up our Social Security survivor’s benefits and worked at the US Post Office to pay the bills. She was eventually able to put a down payment on a co-op apartment in Hartsdale, NY–where she still lives today– and get a 30-yr mortgage. The co-op board of our building accepted us and approved of us as owners. Because of that opportunity I was exposed to a much better environment from the one I was surrounded by in the Bronx. It was in the school system of the Town of Greenburgh that I discovered my love of civic issues and public policy.

So you see I’m quite adamant about opportunity for everyone. I want people to have that same chance for their families. Hopefully we’ll see tons of new families move into the county and reinvigorate it while at the same time diversifying it and bringing a fresh perspective to all things Westchester.

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Written by Jason Gooljar

August 11th, 2009 at 8:05 am

Posted in Housing

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  • Name FRANK ILLINOIS

    you make me SICK. THEY ARE ILLEGAL.FACE IT.THEY SHOULDN,T BE HERE !!!!!

  • http://www.jasongooljar.com wfpman

    What are you talking about? Who's talking about anything illegal here? This
    is effort is to ensure that minorities and people of lower income status
    still get an opportunity to live in Westchester County. Unless you think
    that every minority is illegal…then you have a problem.

  • Julito32

    I am just learning about this whole situation as I moved to Cortlandt just months ago with my wife and now 9 month old child. We’re both Latino and from the Bronx and NYC respectively and longed to have a better life for our child so we saved and bought a beautiful (pricey) home.
    I now read that the result of this settlement is a 4 building 98 apartment complex for low income individuals/families just across the Cortlandt train station.

    This is a good idea? In my opinion, hell no.

    No one ever discriminated against us when looking for a home in Westchester. It’s accepted if you wanted a better living situation, you moved north, away from the city, but you had to have the means to achieve it. Now we will have an element – let’s be real here – that is equivalent to the projects (I AM from the Bronx), walking distance from mass transit. The MetroNorth is already crowded in the mornings – imagine now with all these new people – IF they have jobs to get to. It will also be a strain to the public school system that we are paying quite a bit for in our taxes, something I’m not sure how the residents of this new complex will get around. Overcrowding – Route 9A is a single lane road for the most part…are people going to take taxis around town to go shopping?

    Your mother sacrificed and did the right thing, as well as I hope people feel what my wife and I did for our son. But being HANDED a low income residence in a – project – in an area that is known for its beauty and spaciousness and wildlife is just plain a slap in the face for me since we worked to get to where we are. This Anti-discrimination Group needs to work on the basic lower level first – education and employment – before just handing them the fruits of what other people earned – REGARDLESS of race.

  • http://www.jasongooljar.com wfpman

    “This Anti-discrimination Group needs to work on the basic lower level first – education and employment – before just handing them the fruits of what other people earned – REGARDLESS of race.”

    I can agree with you on that 100%. Personally helping people where they are should be the first priority before moving them.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_A7L6E7ZD2I7CG3646MRVU2Z4H4 Trish

    Notice that the author’s name is not at the top of this article.   By the way ” The Anti Discrimination Center ” ?…located in lower Manhattan doesn’t display one single Lawyer’s name representing a case……In other words it’s a secret..you have to contact them first!…before you even know who you’re talking to…..sleazy isn’t it.?
    Westchester County, who these sleazebag attorneys  from the ” anti -discrimination center ” sued for discrimination in housing obviously don’t even have a clue to our communities, who are comprised of wonderful people from all cultures, as opposed to these so-called attorneys , who choose to remain anonymous……What do they have to hide !