Requiring Westchester Landlords to Take Subsidized-Rent Payments

The Westchester County Board of Legislators set a public hearing for "source of income" legislation connected to the county's 2009 federal housing settlement.

The hearing will start at 7:30 p.m. May 6 at the county government building at 148 Martine Ave., White Plains, during the BOL's regular meeting.

The source-of-income legislation is intended to ban landlords from turning down forms of payment that come from public assistance. The BOL initially approved a version of the legislation in 2010 but it was vetoed by County Executive Rob Astorino, who argued that it would make the Section 8 voucher program go from being voluntary to mandatory.

The county wound up in federal court over the matter. In 2012 a district court judge ruled that the county was in breach of the settlement, which calls for building 750 affordable units by 2016 in mostly white communities. Last week, Astorino sent the current proposed legislation to the BOL, which was modeled after the 2010 version, after U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara threatened to seek a contempt order against the county and possibly him personally. Astorino's office maintains that there has been compliance on the issue already, in response to the district court's ruling, because his office has encouraged the BOL to work on the matter.

The board is also moving forward on the legislation after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) threatened to withhold roughly $7.4 million worth of federal funds. The county has filed an injunction, which is pending, that seeks to stop HUD from making the move, which elected officials in both parties are worried about because they do not want municipalities who benefit from the funds to lose them; the county merely serves as a pass through for the money.