Yorktown/Somers faith leaders support affordable housing 'set aside' law

Dear Editor,

We are religious leaders in the Town of Yorktown, from a variety of faiths, and we write in support of the housing “set aside” law proposed by the Yorktown Community Housing Board, which is scheduled for a public hearing on June 16 at the Town Board.

This law proposes to have 10% of units in new housing developments in Yorktown “set aside” as affordable housing. This is not housing for low income communities, although we believe they deserve decent housing as well. Rather, this is targeted towards people with moderate incomes: home ownership units will be geared to those who earn no more than 80% of the median income in Westchester, currently $136,000 or less annually for a four-person household; and for rental units, to those who earn no more than 60% of the median income in the county, currently $102,000 or less annually for a four-person household.

We do not consider this to be unreasonable, since new housing developments being built in Yorktown are priced around $800,000 to $1 million for homeownership units, and $3000 - $4,000 a month for rentals, effectively pricing people with moderate incomes out of both the rental and home sale market.

As faith leaders in Yorktown, we see firsthand the need for affordable housing. Young people who grew up in our congregations cannot find housing near their parents, and are forced to leave the area, causing real hardship to both generations, not to mention the loss to our community.

Likewise, many of the people who provide essential and important services to our communities, such as teachers, firefighters, emergency medical personnel, restaurant and retail workers, home health aides, and a host of others must commute long distances, causing stress to their families and adding more traffic to our roads.

As faith leaders, we feel that creating quality housing that all people can afford is a moral and ethical duty. Serving the needs of all people, including those of low and moderate means, is the calling of faith, and it should be the calling of government as well.

We urge all residents and stakeholders to express support for affordable housing set asides by attending the public hearing on June 16, or emailing board members directly.

-Rev. Lane Cobb, Fourth Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Westchester; Rabbi Robert Weiner, Temple Beth Am of Northern Westchester; Rev. Michael Watson, Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church in Mohegan Lake; Susan Cody, Baha’i Faith; Rev. Dave Dockweiler, St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church; Rev. Paul Tesshin Silverman, Yorktown Zen.