Down and Out in Westchester
DEALEY, SAM
Down and Out in Westchester Look who's lining up for a federal handout. BY SAM DEALEY EVEN AMONG THE HOMELESS, it seems, there's a pecking order for park benches. Why dodge bullets in gang-torn...
...That, at least, was the surprising news reported by Westchester County Executive Andy Spano two weeks ago...
...Nita Lowey, a Democrat who represents the tony villages and hamlets of southern Westchester, chimed in too...
...When pressed on the homeless issue, Westchester officials flinch...
...And consider Westchester's itemized disbursements submitted to HUD...
...Sue Kelley to fight as hard for Bush's faith-based initiative as they have for pork...
...If anything, Westchester faces a unique set of challenges that the Bush administration fails to consider, including cost of living, state and local taxes, and utility expenses...
...But according to Westchester County's own data, the cost of living has decreased significantly over the last decade...
...Local officials' bad governance is no reason to perpetuate the same on a national scale...
...Then, too, there are loopholes in the formulas HUD uses to award the grants...
...Because Westchester has a high per capita income, it is assumed that we don't need our community development funds...
...Indeed, Westchester County, New York, has a more severe problem with homelessness than anywhere else in the country...
...Another $590,000 was dumped into "Parks and Recreational Facilities...
...further notes that over the last two years, HUD has given $11 million in direct, targeted assistance to Westchester's "homeless...
...I don't know what methodology you would use to determine that," says a dubious Donald Whitehead of the National Coalition for the Homeless...
...But don't count on it...
...And as for state and local taxes and utility expenses—those are state and local issues...
...The only reason we brought up the homelessness situation is to show President Bush that, per capita, this whole county is not Scarsdale...
...We're hoping that our delegation in Congress, which has been supportive of the county executive's attempt to stop this, will stop this," says Tolchin...
...Street Improvements" accounted for $300,000, while nearly $1.1 million went to sidewalk repairs...
...A large part of this increase is no doubt due to the largesse of Andrew Cuomo, the Clinton housing secretary and a New York gubernatorial candidate this year...
...By HUD's formula, all those lovely turn-of-the-century mansions help qualify the county for more federal funds...
...The result, of course, is that all those lovely turn-of-the-century mansions help qualify Westchester for more federal funds...
...Despite a per capita income of $30,250, over twice the national average, Westchester claimed that the $3.5 million in Community Development Block Grants it would lose are desperately needed for social services...
...Spano later added at a press conference: "The president needs to be reminded that Westchester continues to have the highest per capita rate of homelessness in the country...
...I went back and asked the people here at HUD who [track the homeless] for a business," says a department official, "and they were perplexed by it...
...So where did the money go...
...They do not take into consideration that we have the highest per capita homeless rate in the country...
...According to the county's own records, not one penny of the federal funds was spent directly on the homeless last year...
...Nothing could be further from the truth...
...We're the only community in New York state singled out for this cut because of our supposed high income," a spokeswoman for Spano told the New York Times...
...He Sam Dealey is a writer in Washington...
...Rep...
...What about Westchester's status as the homeless capital of America...
...When the Bush administration announced that it planned to divert federal housing funds from the dozen or so wealthiest communities in the country to some impoverished ones along the U.S.-Mexican border, Westchester howled...
...Why dodge bullets in gang-torn Compton when you can shoot the breeze with Bill and Hill in Chappaqua...
...For instance, under the formula chosen by Westchester, 50 percent of the weight goes to "age of the housing stock...
...If taxes are too high and threaten economic development, Spano could take a little initiative and lower them...
...That's not what we're talking about...
...Get away from the homelessness thing," says Susan Tolchin, a spokesman for Spano...
...Over the last decade, Westchester's CDBG grant has grown by 63 percent, to over $7 million annually...
...A spokesman for the Partnership for the Homeless, a New York City outfit, concurs: "In Westchester County that would strike me as being surprising...
...Any housing built before 1940 is treated by HUD as inferior to a house built yesterday...
...As with most things Westchester, the housing-funds flap is a question of privilege, not of need...
...Outside advocates are also perplexed by Spano's claim...
...If Westchester officials are concerned about local government's ability to meet the social services needs of the community, they might urge Lowey and fellow liberal Rep...
Vol. 7 • March 2002 • No. 27
