The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sent a letter on April 19 to the County Attorney of Westchester County, NY demanding that County Executive Rob Astorino take two definitive actions by April 25 regarding the Westchester affirmatively furthering fair housing consent decree (see Memo, 8/21/09). To avoid DOJ seeking Court intervention and perhaps a contempt ruling, the County Executive was directed to submit to the County Board of Legislators the source of income legislation he vetoed in 2010 and agree in writing to sign it should that legislation pass. The 2009 consent decree required the County Executive to, among a number of other obligations, promote legislation prohibiting source of income discrimination. A district court ruled on May 3, 2012 that the county was in “unambiguous breach” of the consent decree as a result of the veto. On April 5, 2013, the Second Circuit court upheld the district court’s order and ruled that “the County violated the terms of the consent decree” that called for the County Executive to request the legislature to reintroduce the prior legislation, provide information to assist in analyzing the impact of the legislation, and sign the legislation (see Memo, 4/12). On April 23, 2013 the Chair of the County Board of Legislators, Ken Jenkins, urged Mr. Astorino to reintroduce the source of income legislation that day, “for the sake of all our residents and taxpayers… Any excuse to the contrary is not acceptable.”During the State of the County speech later on April 23, Mr. Astorino said “HUD thinks it can trample on Westchester because it has the misguided notion that zoning and discrimination are the same thing. They are not.” He added, “Zoning exists to keep traffic from endangering kids on their way to school, to prevent factory noise and smoke from invading residential neighborhoods, and to stop raw sewage from polluting our drinking water. Zoning exists to protect quality of life… for everyone. Take away the zoning that protects Westchester’s reservoirs and watershed and you put the drinking water of eight million New York City residents at risk.” The County Executive continued, asserting that it was HUD’s intention to have 10,786 units of affordable housing built in the county at a cost of up to $1billion, which would necessitate a 200% increase in property taxes.According to a media release by the County Board of Legislators, the County Executive submitted source of income legislation on April 24 and agreed to sign it. The media release concluded, “All the Administration needs to do now is provide substantive assurances that there will be a plan to address any zoning issues.”Separately, HUD’s March 25, 2013 letter to the county threatened to withdraw $7.4 million in FY11 funds if the county did not move on source of income legislation and devise a plan to address exclusionary zoning practices by municipalities in the county (see Memo, 3/29).The Anti-Discrimination Center (ADC), which began the legal proceedings against Westchester in 2006, has stressed that the primary issue has been and remains the exclusionary zoning practices of municipalities in the county and the county’s ongoing refusal to challenge those municipalities (see Memo, 7/27/12). ADC also asserts that the county is not fully complying with other components of the consent decree. The county has yet to provide an acceptable Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing choice. In addition, the county is failing its obligation to develop 630 affordable homes in areas with few racial or ethnic minorities between 2010 and 2016. According to ADC, more than 147 homes have been counted toward that obligation but do not meet the terms of the consent decree, such as a development in a Census block that is already 50% Latino. The consent decree has a benchmark goal of approximately 200 homes by the end of 2012. The DOJ letter was covered in a ProPublica article by Nikole Hannah-Jones, winner of NLIHC’s 2013 Media Award.Read the ProPublica article by Hannah-Jones at http://bit.ly/XUCBQl. Read the DOJ letter is at http://bit.ly/ZTRhgg. View media statements from the Westchester County Board of Legislators at http://bit.ly/12yTFMw. View press releases, letters, and other media documents from the Westchester County Executive office at http://bit.ly/12yTUqX. Visit the Anti-Discrimination Center’s webpage on Westchester at http://bit.ly/cqKXTC.