You can't make up stuff like this. I received in the mail:
Five numbered issues are prominently listed and number one is
"Expand Affordable Housing".
Question for Candidates Forum for White Plains Common Council 10/25/2023. Tuesday, October 24, 2023
Of the seven (including the mayor) current Common Council members, I think only John Martin and Rich Payne live in apartments. White Plains is generally controlled by house owners outnumbering apartment dwellers by an even larger proportion on the council. It's been that way for at least the last half century.
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I may be paraphrasing but I recall candidate Jeremiah Frei-Pearson said at the "Candidates Forum" that Affordable Housing is a national crisis. At this Democratic party link: "He lives in the Gedney Farms neighborhood of White Plains."
The other two candidates above also live in single family houses away from downtown.
Affordable housing hypocrisy expands. Saturday, April 13, 2019
Common Council members should send us a Candygram when they implement affordable housing policy which actually puts their skin in the game: "affordable people" live near them and CC members actually subsidize affordable housing policy themselves...
The Common Council members all live in houses in the suburbs of White Plains and so are not directly affected. The last thing they want is an affordable person moving into the house next to theirs...
First of all, it's affordable apartments...
House owners do not have 10% of the houses on their block occupied by "affordable housing" people. Nor are they paying more in property taxes to make up for "affordable housing" people paying less...
The "market rate" renters in the other 90% of apartments are making up the difference.
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It's my understanding that 12 percent is now the top requirement for the number of apartments in a new development that must be "affordable".
At the "Candidates Forum" they expressed concern that police officers and fire fighters cannot afford to live in White Plains. There's an obvious common sense solution: pay them more money. But then residents living in houses would have their taxes increased and nothing about Affordable Housing policy ever does anything to do that. Only residents renting in apartment buildings pay the difference to subsidize Affordable Housing. Plus, maybe some recent condominiums but the newest condo was built around 2006. Everything since then are rental buildings, most of which are expensive.
