Housing as Busing

City Journal ^ | Autumn 2009 | Howard Husock

[Lorianne]

With a Westchester decision, the feds decree that neighborhoods must seek minority residents.___ The leafy towns and villages of central and northern Westchester County, New York, with their large-lot zoning, stone walls along winding lanes, and the wooden stables of horse country, are among the wealthiest in the United States. From Pound Ridge to Scarsdale, from Chappaqua to Bedford, they might seem remote and insulated from Washington policy disputes. But thanks to a legal settlement announced on August 11, they have become the testing ground for a federal social policy that seeks a dramatic change in the organizing principle of American residential life: that where a family lives is based chiefly on where it can afford to buy or rent a home.

The settlement, approved by the county’s legislature in late September, is the result of a lawsuit filed in 2007 by a New York City–based nonprofit called the Anti-Discrimination Center. The suit argued that when Westchester County applied for federal Community Development Block Grants (CDBGs) for, among other things, affordable housing, it inaccurately claimed to have identified racial as well as income-related barriers faced by poorer residents seeking better housing—and to have taken steps to counter those barriers. This February, a federal judge agreed. To resolve the suit, Westchester has pledged to use $50 million of its own, along with HUD money it receives, to build some 750 units of new subsidized housing—including 630 units in some of its wealthiest enclaves, where less than 3 percent of the population is black and less than 7 percent Hispanic—and to market them especially to those groups.

“This is historic,” said Deputy Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ron Sims, who appeared personally at the announcement of the settlement, “because we are going to hold people’s feet to the fire.”

[Darkwolf377]

Start with John Kerry's neighborhood.

I live within walking distance of it, and you sure as heck don't see anyone living there who doesn't look just like him.

[the invisib1e hand]

oh but justice is poetic.

[Lancey Howard]

LMAO!!!
I bet anything the morons in this “enclave” voted for Hillary, Kerry, Ubama, etc.

[Intolerant in NJ]

The suit argued that when Westchester County applied for federal Community Development Block Grants (CDBGs) for, among other things, affordable housing, it inaccurately claimed to have identified racial as well as income-related barriers faced by poorer residents seeking better housing—and to have taken steps to counter those barriers...The current move by the feds to control the compensation of executives of those banks which took TARP money is only the latest intrusion of big government into the affairs of the private sector using the excuse that since it's federal money being used, the feds have the right to tell those getting the money how they should conduct themselves. From housing grants to funding to colleges, the strings attached to big government's offers to provide financial help always bind those getting the help more firmly to the government's power and control over them........

[Travis McGee]

Welcome to the USSA, comrade. The state will decide who your neighbors should be.

[sailor4321]

Sounds to me like they took federal money under false pretense and are now being held accountable. Wonder if they can give the money back?

[boop]

They’re going to LOVE section 8 housing residents living in the neighborhood. Does wonders for property values and crime statistics.

[Lancey Howard]

They’ll re-elect the same Democrat scumbags, trust me, even after the coming rash of break-ins, smash-and-grabs, and muggings.