OF RESPECT, THE MAYOR, AND THAT ALLEGED TENANT WHO WAS LIVING IN HER CAR--A LETTER FROM PAUL STEINBERG

Welcome to The New Everything Croton, a collection of all things Croton--our history, our homes, our issues, our businesses, our schools, our houses of worship--in short, EVERYTHING CROTON.

To the editor:

The lack of respect from the Board of Trustees is often manifest in their lack of honesty. This week the Mayor tells us of “a tenant who had to live out of her car when her apartment was found to be unsafe and there were not alternatives for her.”

If Village Engineer O’Connor was involved in such an incident, he should be fired. The Westchester County Dept. of Social Services has a range of programs for people who are displaced. There are a range of accommodations including Emergency Apartments and shelters. For the Village Engineer to make a finding that an apartment is not safe for habitation and then kick the resident out to live in her car is unconscionable.

It does satisfy our sense of snobbery: better to live in a car on the streets of Croton than find temporary housing in a nearby community. But Croton is not that special. If a woman prefers to live in her car rather than leave Croton, that is indicative of a psychological issue and the woman should have been assisted by a social worker or medical professional.

To leave someone living in a car on the street for the sake of a juicy story to justify re-zoning is despicable. Even worse is that nothing the Board of Trustees has done will provide for emergency housing, so the Mayor is simply telling the story for shock value.

The Mayor then says that “any member of the community with ears to hear have heard appeals from neighbors looking for housing for themselves or their families.” 

Does the Mayor have ears? Has he had his hearing checked? Because there is absolutely nothing that the Mayor or trustees have done which will address housing for Croton residents. There is nothing wrong with implementing 6-story apartment zoning and having housing lotteries to bring in new residents from across the tri-state area. But none of that will result in housing for those Croton residents seeking housing.

On page 11 of the slide show presented by Westchester County, it has a section titled: “How does all this relate back to the Village?” The slide lists Croton “empty nesters” seeking to downsize, “Young adults who grew up in Croton cannot afford their own apartment or home in Croton” and “Seniors who cannot afford increasing costs of homeownership or rent will likely have to relocate.”

OK—so what has the Board of Trustees done to address the needs of residents? According to the slide, it put up 28 [sic] units of affordable housing on Maple Street, and will develop the train station lot. That is nice for the people who win the housing lotteries, but there is no preference for Croton residents of any age. As a matter of simple statistics, Croton residents are unlikely to occupy any of those apartments.

There are issues of housing affordability, but those are not unique to Croton. Rather than have an honest conversation and be realistic about what is possible, the Board gives data points which are either made up or not the way people actually live. For example, the slide show says that in Croton, rental housing is “out of reach.” It cites 2020 data that the apartment would rent for $1984 and that would require an annual wage of $79,360. But if you look at the tiny print, the apartment example is “2BR FMR”—in other words, a single earner renting a two bedroom apartment. Below that is a slide purporting to show that 26 percent of Croton households are “ALICE” households. The implication is that these are poverty level households. But looking at the fine print, the poverty level is actually 5 percent under the federal government definition. The number gets up to 26 percent because the United Way says that is how much income a household needs.

The Mayor says that “someone earning the median income for the Village, approximately $150,000 annually, would struggle to afford a place in our community if they had to buy a home today.”

This statement is factually true, and the disparity between median income and home prices is seen across the United States and many nations around the globe. But nothing the Board of Trustees is doing will change that fact. Construction of income-restricted rental units on Maple Street or Lot A will not affect that $649,900 Croton home price or the $580,000 condo price. And someone living in Croton is unlikely to win the lottery for Maple Street or Lot A.

It is true that massive apartment construction such as can be seen in Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, or Yonkers might have a tiny impact for a brief period as the market was satiated. But Croton does not have the waterside land that other Hudson communities do. With the exception of Half Moon Bay, most of Croton’s waterfront is parkland.

Housing affordability is a legitimate concern, and Village actions can have some effect on the problem. But this is really a regional problem which requires a regional solution. There is virtually nothing that the Croton Board of Trustees can do to alleviate the problem of affordability for residents and offspring of residents. That is not a slap at the trustees; it is due to the fact that actions favoring Croton residents would likely be a violation of federal law insofar as the impact would be discriminatory.

Croton’s trustees and Mayor don’t care about what residents think, and that is a source of ongoing frustration for many folks. But even if they did care, there is not much they can do to alleviate the problem for current residents. The move to five and six story apartment zoning will happen. This is no secret and has been an avowed goal of Croton’s elite since the days of the Harmon litigation. 

In the long run, the tax rate disparity is going to put pressure on owners of single-family homes and cause seniors to move away as taxes on single-family homes become unaffordable. That woman living in her car may get a lot of company in the decades to come.

--Paul Steinberg, Croton-on-Hudson