(April 19, 2023) For months, we have been advocating for a bold vision for tackling our housing shortage. We have been clear in our campaign’s values that every community in Westchester and the Greater New York City area played a role in creating this housing shortfall, and so every community needs to do what it can to be a part of the solution. Clearly, those values are not shared by everyone within the legislature and, if news reports are accurate, will not be reflected in the New York State budget this year.
Whether or not any portion of the Governor’s Housing Compact was passed in the budget, our campaign’s focus would now be on Westchester’s towns, villages, and cities, who each have a critical role to play. This would have been true if the Housing Compact had passed, as it would take the passion and focus of advocates to push for implementation at the local level to truly build homes of every shape and size to suit the needs of all of our residents. But even without the Housing Compact, advocacy at the local level continues to be the way we’ll build the housing we need.
As a county, we have so much progress to build on. Half a dozen communities have either passed ordinances to allow for accessory dwelling units or to improve the ADU policy already on the books. The surge of transit-oriented development and housing production in New Rochelle is not just yielding more homes but more slowly growing rents than in other communities. Places like Pleasantville have shown that it’s possible to thoughtfully increase housing options and revitalize the downtown area without triggering the adverse effects that local NIMBYs spread ghost stories about.
Any city, town, or village can do the same — they can begin that process tomorrow. At a minimum, they should take the opportunity to show what the much-vaunted “local control” can do to meaningfully solve a housing shortage that continues to burden property taxpayers, employers, our local economy, seniors, millennials, working families, children, people of color, and so many others.