Lack of HUD Funding Stalls Village Projects Despite County Program
| by Robert Kimmel |
For the second consecutive year, Westchester’s proposed $216 million capital budget lists a $5 million expenditure for a project labeled the Community Housing Infrastructure Investment Program (CHIIP). CHIIP emerged as the result of a longstanding dispute between County Executive Rob Astorino and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
CHIIP is described by the county as “a fund to assist those municipalities with the highest concentration of low to moderate income populations that have lost HUD funding for various projects that were to be funded by Community Development Block Grant, (CDBG) money.”
Among the county municipalities that have lost HUD funding are Tarrytown, Sleepy Hollow, and Irvington, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last several years.
The federal grant money was cut off after HUD charged that the county had failed to meet the requirements of a 2009 fair housing settlement. HUD basically claimed that zoning laws in certain municipalities led to discrimination in housing. Tarrytown, Irvington and Sleepy Hollow were not among them.
In 2014, Astorino proposed that the county pick up the slack. In a State of the County speech, the County Executive stated that Westchester should “opt out” of the HUD Program and set up its own block grant program to replace $5 million HUD grant funding annually. He said the same rules will apply, and, as it does now, the county will handle the administrative processes. At the time, he asserted that, “This initiative will remove the stranglehold that HUD has been using in its attempt to dismantle our local zoning.” CHIIP was established by the county last year.
However, in all three villages, Tarrytown, Irvington, and Sleepy Hollow, projects that were to be financed in full or part by the HUD grants have remained stalled, or slowed. Apparently, CHIIP has not been a benefit to the villages, at least not yet.
Of the three villages, Sleepy Hollow was affected most heavily. Among several works to be assisted by grants, Village Administrator Anthony Giaccio had put the loss at over $600,000. “The only project we’re moving forward with is the Route 9 Streetscape project. We were expected to receive $200,000 in CDBG funds for this project, “Giaccio said. The cost of the project is about $1 million.” HUD grants of $155,000 for Beekman Avenue street lighting and a $108,750 HUD grant for sidewalk improvements on North Broadway were lost.
Tarrytown Administrator Mike Blau estimated the total loss of CDBG funding over the last several years at $468,000. Describing one of the projects stalled, “Village-wide Sewer and Manhole Rehabilitation,” he noted that, “There has not been any manhole repair work performed. We have performed a number of catch basin repairs in house, Blau said. “The other project affected was the Comprehensive Park Improvements for Patriots Park,” he noted. However, Blau said, “The county is providing funding assistance to extend the RiverWalk Park along the edge of Losee Park.”
On hold in Irvington is a flood control project, for which the village was to receive a HUD grant of $200,000, according to Village Administrator Lawrence Schopfer.
The county has pushed back at the HUD grant halt in the courts, but this fall a Federal Appeals Court panel ruled that it was acting properly in holding back $5 million in aid, because the county had not met the requirements of the fair housing settlement. The courts, however, have not seen Westchester as guilty of housing discrimination. And, the county states that it is ahead of schedule in the development of 750 affordable housing units, as required by the 2009 settlement with HUD.
Westchester communities also have an opportunity now to seek HUD funding through a $4 million program set up by New York State this year to help fill the gap caused by the county’s stalemate with HUD.
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