Yonkers deseg case offers housing lesson

Gerald McKinstry
gmckinst@lohud.com

When County Executive Andrew Spano met with legislators last week to lobby for a landmark federal housing settlement, he asked them to remember Yonkers' turbulent history.

Westchester's largest city endured a 30-year battle with the federal government and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to desegregate its neighborhoods and schools. The case cost Yonkers hundreds of millions of dollars, forced it to create magnet schools and busing and mandated public housing be built throughout the city.

"During that period, Yonkers got tagged as a racist city," Spano said several days after meeting with legislators. "I don't want us to fall into the same traps that they fell into in Yonkers."

It wasn't until 2007, nearly three decades after that historic suit was filed and 600 units were built, that leaders declared Yonkers fully integrated.

Though the two cases differ somewhat, there are parallels and lessons to be learned, Spano and other leaders say. Fighting court orders and prolonging any housing battles with the federal government won't be good for taxpayers, the county executive said.

He and others fear what would happen if legislators don't ratify a $60 million agreement with the federal government that requires 750 units be built in mostly white communities over the next seven years.

The county Board of Legislators has until Sept. 25 to approve it, or the settlement becomes null and the parties go back to court.

Appealing it and losing could cost upward of $180 million, Spano said. That figure doesn't include the cost of providing housing or possible damages to Westchester's reputation nationwide.

"If we vote the stipulation down, and this thing drags on, we are going to be pegged as a racist county," Spano said. "I don't think Westchester is a racist county."

Nor does Legislator George Oros, R-Cortlandt, though he fears this deal is being pushed on the board without all the facts.

From what he's seen, it's too open-ended and he's not so sure the county can live up to its obligations. If it can't, Oros wants to know what the ramifications are.

Nonetheless, Oros said this settlement must be decided on its own merits, not on facets of any other cases.

"He's setting up a straw man instead of coming forth with the ramifications," Oros said. "You could use all kinds of examples where litigation wins or loses. The problem with the settlement is there are no guarantees.

"In the end, we might be able to support it, but let's get down to serious discussions."

Other legislators agree - the numbers, dollars and details are what matter, they have said.

Rob Astorino, a Republican running for county executive, has called for public hearings throughout Westchester. He wants more transparency and accountability - the public has the right to ask questions.

"Where will this housing go? How much will it cost us?" Astorino said last week. "If the county board can't answer these questions, then the average person can't, either."

Rental units will be set aside for households earning $52,650 to $63,180 while units that are for sale will be for households earning $67,400 to $84,200. Locations have not been determined. Though the goal is to integrate communities, the county cannot exclude eligible whites or other minorities from applying.

Spano said many answers will come when the implementation plan is rolled out within 120 days. He said when that outline is completed, the public will have its say.

In truth, Spano said, the settlement's goal is consistent with the county's affordable-housing plans, so he doesn't expect it will cost all that much more than what the county already allocated for such housing.

What's important is that Westchester shows it's a leader, Spano said.

"The whole nation is looking at us to be the model," he said. "I think this is the right thing to do."

This agreement isn't likely to cause the problems the Yonkers case did unless, of course, leaders challenge the federal government, said Joseph Pastore, a business professor at Pace University who served as a monitor on the Yonkers schools settlement.

Yonkers garnered national attention in part because its leaders defied court orders and were willing to go to prison, Pastore said. The city almost went bankrupt.

Even those who opposed remedies in Yonkers eventually came around, he said.

"I don't think you're going to have quite the show," he said. "The evidence shows that many of the people who were outraged became very supportive.

"I'd like to think time and circumstances have changed. I think we've changed. There's evidence in that, just look at our national leadership," Pastore said, referring to President Barack Obama.

Pastore said the implementation process will be crucial. Leaders, working with the court-appointed monitor, will "have a lot of control over that," he said.

His advise: "Get all of the parties together in the sanest moment you can and work on the (plan). They can keep it out of the national news by effective implementation."

Yonkers became "the poster child of racism" by resisting, said Ken Jenkins, a Democratic county legislator from Yonkers who served as president of the NAACP there during the early 1990s.

He said it would have been a lot easier and cost-effective to work together as Pastore recommended .

The great lesson learned, Jenkins said, was that it is possible to build affordable housing so that people don't know that it's publicly subsidized. Townhouses and other low-density buildings can fit into a community and not affect property values, he said.

"That's what Yonkers learned after that process," Jenkins said. "The lesson to be learned is how can we go build great affordable housing so that people don't know" it's there.

Jenkins feared that if his colleagues fought this settlement, "we could be creeping down the same path."

"It won't go that way if cooler heads prevail and leaders act like leaders," he said. "A public sideshow won't accomplish anything."