The proposed 2022 Capital Budget has been released by County Executive George Latimer on October 14, 2021.
The Welcome Home Westchester campaign hopes that this budget proposal will be swiftly approved by the Board of Legislators as it presents affordable housing as a top priority for funding and will solidify the County’s commitment to the housing issue.
Below is a statement on the proposal from Tim Foley, CEO & Executive Vice President of the BRI:
“On behalf of the Welcome Home Westchester campaign, we applaud County Executive Latimer’s proposals in the 2022 Proposed Capital budget to support land acquisition and infrastructure improvements to help make it easier to develop new affordable housing throughout the County. The need for housing throughout our communities is critical, and the level of investment proposed by County Executive Latimer rises to meet that challenge with the largest single-year investment in affordable housing. This $50 million investment would be spread across a few programs with proven track records in supporting development costs, improving things like roads, water and storm sewer improvements, and other areas that make it safe and cost-effective.
Investing in housing isn’t just fundamental for supporting our families, our children, our seniors, our essential workers, and our communities throughout Westchester — it’s a good deal for our local economies, and for the school and property tax bills for our existing residents. Preserving and improving our housing stock and building must-needed new units of housing are also fundamental to tackling so many other issues, from carbon emissions to reversing decades of housing discrimination. We’re grateful to the County Executive for his leadership, we urge the Board of Legislators to embrace these proposals, and we encourage our municipal officials to take note and examine how they can take advantage of these funding opportunities to green-light building the housing we need.”