October 14, 2025
Honorable Kenneth Jenkins
Westchester County Executive
148 Martine Avenue
White Plains, NY 10601
Lawrence C. Soule
Director of the Budget
Westchester County
148 Martine Avenue
White Plains, NY 10601
Dear County Executive Jenkins and Budget Director Soule,
On behalf of Welcome Home Westchester, a multistakeholder campaign led by business and nonprofit leaders, homebuilding and housing development companies, academics, think tanks, anti-homelessness advocates, climate activists, faith leaders and community advocates, we write to share our perspectives on the FY2026 Budget and its impact on building, redeveloping and preserving the housing we need to address our county-wide housing shortage.
Housing supply and affordability remain a top concern for those who live and work in Westchester as well as the businesses and nonprofit organizations which call Westchester home. As the County’s 2019 Housing Needs Assessment clearly shows, we are faced with overcoming a housing shortage that was decades in the making and which has profound negative effects on our local economy, residents, and communities. This year, a new report on the economics of the housing shortage in Westchester called “Building Growth” both provided an updated assessment of the housing shortage and also detailed the severe economic consequences of failing to build the housing we need.
With this in mind, Welcome Home Westchester presents the following recommendations for the FY2026 Capital, Operating and Special Districts budgets:
1.) Ensure effective utilization of new County-funded infrastructure, flooding mitigation, and other capital projects that benefit a specific municipality by requiring the community to provide a written statement about their goals for reforming their zoning, ordinances, infrastructure projects or property tax exemptions to encourage the addition of much-needed housing. The fundamental maxim of the Welcome Home Westchester campaign is that “Not every community needs to do the same things to be part of the housing solution, but no community should be allowed to do nothing.” Westchester County in the past has been reluctant to add conditions retroactively to infrastructure investments or to take a more pro-active stance in requiring municipalities to look at ways that their land use practices or zoning continue to contribute to the housing shortage as a condition of County spending. But an alternative to attaching strings to funding is requiring transparency. There are more than a dozen cities, towns and villages which are currently either part of the statewide Pro-Housing Communities program or who have otherwise created conditions for them to modestly increase their housing stock. For these communities, a written statement ought to be particularly easy to produce. In other communities who are not as far along, a written record would prompt them to review their practices in the interests of making it more likely the County will invest infrastructure dollars in that community. Particularly as some of the federal and state programs that have funded some of this infrastructure work wind down or become more constrained, it is worth ensuring that the communities who benefit from County dollars are self-aware of whether or not they are addressing the housing shortage.
2.) Preserve as much funding as possible for the County’s best-in-the-state programs to support affordable housing. Westchester’s New Lands Acquisition Fund and Housing Implementation Fund are proven programs that have served as the bedrock for the recent surge in the construction of affordable housing, including both rentals and homeownership options such as condos. In particular, the HIF has provided critical infrastructure improvements which benefit specific projects as well as the municipality as a whole. The FY2025 Capital Budget included $50 million combined for both programs. We urge bonding to achieve a similar spending level in FY2026 to keep the production of affordable housing moving forward. Further, budgetary funds designated for affordable housing should apply to all eligible affordable housing, including those units built above the County’s 10 percent threshold.
3.) Promote discussion and action around building the housing we need. The County’s investments in affordable housing and economic support through the IDA remain indispensable. The Westchester County Housing Needs Assessment, at a much lower cost, has also had a tremendous impact. That document fostered conversations at the municipal level and galvanized housing activists with solid information to make the case for addressing the housing shortage. Similarly small investments by the County Planning Department could lead to similar game-changing effects that prompt local communities to respond. We suggest the following:
a. The County Planning Department should produce an online housing production dashboard to catalogue the list of new, in-progress, and completed housing projects utilizing County money since the publication of the 2019 Housing Needs Assessment. A dashboard like this would celebrate the County’s achievements in this area, provide vital information on the number of affordable units produced and at what levels of AMI, while also recognizing the cities, towns, and villages who have taken important steps to be part of the housing solution. Additionally, it will aid in the tracking of the current backlog of infrastructure projects that can and should be prioritized and addressed swiftly.
b. Grants should be made to municipalities who perform regional updates to their comprehensive plans that include chapters and/or components of their plan dedicated to the discussion of housing needs, housing challenges and housing policies and strategies. While many communities have already done so, not every community has the financial resources or the planning expertise to conduct true community planning, as demanded by our current housing shortage, infrastructure backlog, and the changing ways that our residents live, work and play. Certain elements that have confounded individual applications for residential or commercial buildings, such as traffic, have often only been looked at in a narrow context whereas the actual problems with traffic in a community often has as much to do with neighboring roads and communities. The County has been a useful convener for smaller villages and towns to match their resources and expertise in the past. Funding a county-wide program, while substantial, is a small fraction of the County’s existing investments, many of which are taking place in the absence of good planning at the local level.
Welcome Home Westchester applauds the County’s strong efforts to address the housing crisis. We are grateful for your partnership in continuing to build a bright future for all who live and work in Westchester County.
Respectfully yours,
The Partners and Policy Advisory Committee members of Welcome Home Westchester:
Building & Realty Institute (BRI)
Construction Industry Council of Westchester & Hudson Valley, Inc.
Housing Action Council
Nonprofit Westchester (NPW)
Pace University Land Use Law Center
Regional Plan Association (RPA)
Westchester County Association (WCA)
Westhab, Inc.
Bet Am Shalom Synagogue
Calvary Baptist Church
Caring for the Hungry and Homeless of Peekskill (CHHOP)
Child Care Council of Westchester, Inc.
Collins LLC
Community Housing Innovations (CHI)
Comstock Residential Contracting, LLC
The Delaine Companies
Department of Veterans Affairs Career EAP Manager AFGE
First Baptist Church of White Plains
Ginsburg Development Companies
Goldstein Hall PLLC
Habitat for Humanity NYC and Westchester County
Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors
Hudson Hills Partners
IFCA Housing Network
Kings Capital Construction
Lifting Up Westchester
Murphy Brothers Contracting
RM Friedland
Scarsdale Congregational Church, UCC
Urban Land Institute (ULI)
Westchester Children’s Association
Westchester Residential Opportunities, Inc.
Wilder Balter Partners, Inc.
Yonkers Family YMCA