I’ve been building housing in Westchester, much of it mixed income and affordable, for a long time. In that time, I’ve watched a problem that was always there get significantly worse. It’s not one thing. Land has been bid up by luxury builders. Construction costs jumped after the COVID-19 pandemic. Interest rates rose. Inflation hit […]
I’ve been building housing in Westchester, much of it mixed income and affordable, for a long time. In that time, I’ve watched a problem that was always there get significantly worse.
It’s not one thing. Land has been bid up by luxury builders. Construction costs jumped after the COVID-19 pandemic. Interest rates rose. Inflation hit hard. And through all of it, we simply haven’t built enough housing. At any income level.
The result is something you can feel across the region: Teachers, nurses, firefighters, small business owners, seniors on fixed incomes — the people who keep these communities running — are being priced out of them. I’ve watched friends pack up and move south because they couldn’t make the numbers work here anymore. When I talk to them, half of their new neighbors are from the Hudson Valley, too.
That’s not just a housing statistic. That’s the fabric of a community coming apart.
We cannot damage our Westchester communities further
People assume affordable housing looks different from market-rate housing. It doesn’t. The buildings we develop have the same finishes, the same amenities, the same quality of construction. “Affordable” doesn’t mean lower standards. It means accessible to more people.
And the demand is overwhelming. We receive thousands of applications for our lotteries. That tells you everything you need to know about where we are.
We build both rental and ownership units in Westchester, and the people applying for both are exactly who you’d expect: young professionals trying to get a foothold, teachers and first responders just starting out, young families, seniors who want to stay in the communities where they raised their families and small business owners who want to live near where they work.
The goal isn’t to keep people in affordable housing forever. When someone in one of our affordable rentals moves to a market-rate apartment (we’ve had residents do exactly that within the same building), that’s a success. That’s how the system is supposed to work.
For our ownership projects, the impact is lasting. Buyers don’t need to sell when their income grows beyond the initial eligibility threshold. They build equity. They put down roots. That’s how you keep a community stable over time.
We can learn from these successes
We’ve seen that work firsthand in White Plains, where our affordable condominium projects at 6 Cottage Place and 99 Church Street just recently drew thousands of applicants and so we will soon put working residents into homes, many from Westchester, that they can now call their own in the heart of downtown.
This month, we opened the lottery for Rose on Main, 126 affordable condominiums in downtown New Rochelle, developed with our partner, L+M Development Partners. The development is named for Rosemarie Noonan, the longtime executive director of the Housing Action Council, who spent decades working to expand homeownership access across Westchester. Mayor Yadira Ramos Herbert and her team have been steadfast partners, and the city has committed $2.5 million in down payment assistance to help put these homes within reach for people with local ties to the community.
Hochul and Jenkins get it. So do local leaders
Here’s what gives me some hope. More people in Westchester now understand that we need more housing at all income levels. In New Rochelle, White Plains, Peekskill, Tarrytown, Ossining, Croton and Yonkers, local leaders have stepped up. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s housing agenda and County Executive Ken Jenkins’ leadership have kept this issue front and center. That alignment from the top down matters. It’s what makes housing get built.
But we need more of it, and faster. Westchester cannot afford to keep losing its younger generation, its essential workers and its longtime residents. When they leave, you don’t just lose population. You lose the people who coach Little League, staff the emergency room and teach third grade. That’s not a housing problem. That’s a Westchester County problem.
I grew up here. I want the next generation to be able to say the same thing.
Jim Wendling is COO of WBP Development, a Chappaqua-based residential real estate development firm with projects across Westchester County including One Dromore Road in Greenburgh, Lewisboro Commons, 645 Main in Peekskill, 62 Main in Tarrytown, 6 Cottage Place and 99 Church Street in White Plains, and Stella, 25 Maple and Rose on Main in New Rochelle.…Read more by Jim Wendling