Housing Needs Assessment

Westchester County is committed to promoting fair and equitable housing across its six cities, 19 towns, and 20 villages.

Westchester County undertook this Affordable Housing Needs Assessment to establish a data-based foundation for the creation and preservation of affordable housing in Westchester County. Affordable housing is a major contributing factor to a balanced and well-functioning county and in turn, its communities and neighborhoods.

The need for affordable housing in Westchester cannot be easily drilled down to one number or one need. Affordable housing is incredibly complex and dynamic – a reflection of the entire housing market.

The Assessment looks at the County’s history of housing policies; lays out the methodology for data analysis; provides findings on a wide variety of demographic, housing stock, and housing affordability issues; and provides recommendations, including Best Practices from across the country, to help the County move forward in meeting its affordable housing needs.

To complete the Assessment, Pattern for Progress used a standard statistical approach viewing Westchester County as a whole and with a separate look at the municipalities. Additional research and analysis was conducted through plans and reports, but also through interviews with stakeholders and several public forums.

In this report, the three major components of the data analysis: Housing Cost Burden, Housing Conditions, and a Projection of Current Housing Need are provided at the county level and for each municipality.

The total number of new affordable housing units needed is 11,703. This represents the total number of Westchester households that are severely overcrowded or Homeless, as well as the non-Westchester Homeseeker registrants.

Creating more affordable housing opportunities and services cannot be accomplished with one program or one option. The need for a variety of affordable housing units is also evident. One size does not fit all and a range of housing opportunities is needed.

In response to the data found and the analysis conducted, this Assessment includes 12 Recommendations for the County to consider for implementation to start to address the identified need. These recommendations are supported with examples of Best Practices from around the country to demonstrate how they have worked in other areas. These recommendations are categorized under four sections:

Education and Training
Land and Zoning
Housing Services
Funding Programs

Some of these recommendations are not new to the County and may be easily introduced, while others will need additional review and adaptation to be best enacted in Westchester.

This Assessment can be viewed as the full report or through its specific sections. Likewise, the Appendices can be viewed as the full report or through the specific sections, including the data analysis for each municipality, though additional data for each municipality is available throughout the report.

Report

Executive Summary

Section 1 - Background and History

Section 2 - Methodology

Section 3: Population & Demographics

Section 3: Housing Stock

Section 3: Household Income

Section 3: Special Needs

Section 3: Findings: Affordability

Conclusion

Recommendations

Affordable Housing Education Workshop Series