Housing Issues

See also: Underhill Apartments, Section 8 lawsuit/Affordable Housing

Town Board, January 10, 2012

Four members of the Community Housing Board addressed the Town  Board to discuss the potential sale of the affordable housing unit (a condo) to the owners of New Chalet, a 205 unit rental development.

New Chalet has agreed to give the town $200,000 for waiving its right of first refusal on the sale of the unit, and an additional $300,000 to the current owner, Paul O’Dair to sell the unit to New Chalet.  Both offers would facilitate the sale by New Chalet to a new owner.

Mr. O’Dair paid $103,000 for the unit in 1991 and the town’s Housing Trust Fund contributed an additional $37,000 towards the sale.

As explained by the Housing Board, under the terms of the agreement Mr. O’Dair signed, it was up to the Housing Board to set the resale price of the unit. According to their calculations, which were based on the CPI, that should have been $179,881. They did not want to see Mr. O’Dair make a windfall on the sale, especially as they said he had been illegally renting the unit for several years.  They said that when Mr. O’Dair first approached the Housing Board about the resale, he was prepared to give the town back the $37,000, although they agreed with Supervisor Grace that under the terms of the agreement he was not required to give back that sum.  Ken Belfer, chairman of the Housing Board reminded Mr. Grace that the town was also under no obligation to release the unit from the affordable housing program.

Supervisor Grace said that the initial legislation that set up the affordable program, which he had drafted, was the problem. Calling the law a “morass,” he said he raised issues about the law back them. “The ordinance doesn’t work,” he said and the town has no legal remedy. We should not be punitive. He said the town had no recourse for recovering the $37,000.

John O’Dair, the father of the owner, speaking on his son’s behalf, said that the offer to return $37,000 to the town was made before his son know about the $300,000 offer from New Chalet, a point that was challenged by Mr. Belfer.  He said the offer was no longer on the table.

Saying that “It’s water under the bridge,” Mr. Grace advised the board to forget about the problems that the town can’t do anything about and basically accept the $200,000 from New Chalet.

The board voted 5-0 to accept the $200,000 New Chalet and that the money will go to the Housing Trust Fund.

 In response to Mr. Grace’s comments about problems with affordable housing laws in general, Mr. Belfer said that many of these types of laws are working and that the Housing Board planned to return to the Town Board for a discussion of changes to the current law. In response, Mr. Grace said, “You’ll have a battle with me.”

Underhill Apartments

Town Board, January 10, 2012

In an item not on the agenda, the board unanimously approved a resolution granting a 33 year revocable lease to the company purchasing the Underhill Apartments that permits the apartment complex to encroach on town parkland.  Without any explanation, Supervisor Grace said that the town “will straighten it out.”

Section 8 /Affordable Housing

Town Board, 5/15/2012

Kaaren Perez, the director of the Town’s Section 8 program explained that this was the first phase in revising and updating the Administrative Plan that governs the Town’s Section 8 rent subsidy program. The revised plan includes changes in local policies, eliminates local preferences, explains waiting list procedures, and explains the Town’s anti discrimination policies. The changes are being made pursuant to a settlement of a lawsuit.

There were no additional comments. The board closed the hearing and approved the revised plan.

The board voted to set a public hearing on a revised Section 8 Administrative Plan. The hearing date was not made public.

Town Board, 4/3/2012

 During Courtesy of the Floor: Saying that the recent settlement of the Section 8 lawsuit with the Fair Housing Justice Center cost the Town $165,000, Ed Ciffone said that the Town should do away with the program. (Editor’s note: the Town was only responsible for the first $75,000; the Town’s insurance company paid the remaining amount.)

Board members were given forms to sign indicating that they had read the Housing Non-Discrimination Policy adopted by the Town Board. Some members questioned why they had to sign the policy as the Planning Board had nothing to do with the Section 8 program and that they were volunteers. It was explained, however, that the requirement was part of a settlement agreement that resolved a lawsuit suit involving the Section 8 program but which also included some references to affordable housing. Mr. Kincart noted that as a realtor he had to sign such a policy.

The board discussed two changes in the existing law that governs affordable housing units built under the provisions of prior laws that are no longer in effect. Both changes are required in order to comply with the terms of the settlement the town signed that ended the Section 8 lawsuit.

a. Preferences. The town will eliminate the local preferences in the current code. While the town attorney had drafted a short version of the changes that only dealt with the preferences, the board agreed to proceed with a longer version of the changes prepared by the Housing Board that updated other provisions of the code that were now out of date.According to Housing Board chairman Ken Belfer, as long as the town needed to make one change in the law, it made sense to look at the other issues at the same time. Most of the additional changes would substitute old indices used to calculate affordability with the newer county standards that the town incorporated into its new affordable housing law.

Supervisor Grace said he had no problem with the proposed changes but that when the issue arose to apply the new affordable housing law, he would move to repeal the law which he said was unconstitutional and illegal.

Because the settlement agreement set up a timetable for the town adopting the preferences change, the board unanimously approved a resolution to refer out the draft language for review in order to expedite the process.

b. Housing discrimination. Without discussion, the board unanimously voted to adopt a housing non-discrimination statement and policy.

The board approved a settlement with Fair Housing Justice Center dealing with litigation involving the town’s Section 8 program. No details were provided.