EVEN AMONG THE HOMELESS, it seems, there’s a pecking order for park benches. Why dodge bullets in gang-torn Compton when you can shoot the breeze with Bill and Hill in Chappaqua? Indeed, Westchester County, New York, has a more severe problem with homelessness than anywhere else in the country. That, at least, was the surprising news reported by Westchester County Executive Andy Spano two weeks ago. When the Bush administration announced that it planned to divert federal housing funds from the dozen or so wealthiest communities in the country to some impoverished ones along the U.S.-Mexican border, Westchester howled. Despite a per capita income of $30,250, over twice the national average, Westchester claimed that the $3.5 million in Community Development Block Grants it would lose are desperately needed for social services. “We’re the only community in New York state singled out for this cut because of our supposed high income,” a spokeswoman for Spano told the New York Times. “They do not take into consideration that we have the highest per capita homeless rate in the country.” Spano later added at a press conference: “The president needs to be reminded that Westchester continues to have the highest per capita rate of homelessness in the country.” What about Westchester’s status as the homeless capital of America? “I went back and asked the people here at HUD who [track the homeless] for a business,” says a department official, “and they were perplexed by it.” He further notes that over the last two years, HUD has given $11 million in direct, targeted assistance to Westchester’s “homeless.” Outside advocates are also perplexed by Spano’s claim. “I don’t know what methodology you would use to determine that,” says a dubious Donald Whitehead of the National Coalition for the Homeless. A spokesman for the Partnership for the Homeless, a New York City outfit, concurs: “In Westchester County that would strike me as being surprising.” And consider Westchester’s itemized disbursements submitted to HUD. According to the county’s own records, not one penny of the federal funds was spent directly on the homeless last year. So where did the money go? “Street Improvements” accounted for $300,000, while nearly $1.1 million went to sidewalk repairs. Another $590,000 was dumped into “Parks and Recreational Facilities.” When pressed on the homeless issue, Westchester officials flinch. “Get away from the homelessness thing,” says Susan Tolchin, a spokesman for Spano. “That’s not what we’re talking about. The only reason we brought up the homelessness situation is to show President Bush that, per capita, this whole county is not Scarsdale.” Rep. Nita Lowey, a Democrat who represents the tony villages and hamlets of southern Westchester, chimed in too. “Because Westchester has a high per capita income, it is assumed that we don’t need our community development funds. Nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, Westchester faces a unique set of challenges that the Bush administration fails to consider, including cost of living, state and local taxes, and utility expenses.” But according to Westchester County’s own data, the cost of living has decreased significantly over the last decade. And as for state and local taxes and utility expenses–those are state and local issues. If taxes are too high and threaten economic development, Spano could take a little initiative and lower them. Local officials’ bad governance is no reason to perpetuate the same on a national scale. As with most things Westchester, the housing-funds flap is a question of privilege, not of need. Over the last decade, Westchester’s CDBG grant has grown by 63 percent, to over $7 million annually. A large part of this increase is no doubt due to the largesse of Andrew Cuomo, the Clinton housing secretary and a New York gubernatorial candidate this year. Then, too, there are loopholes in the formulas HUD uses to award the grants. For instance, under the formula chosen by Westchester, 50 percent of the weight goes to “age of the housing stock.” Any housing built before 1940 is treated by HUD as inferior to a house built yesterday. The result, of course, is that all those lovely turn-of-the-century mansions help qualify Westchester for more federal funds. If Westchester officials are concerned about local government’s ability to meet the social services needs of the community, they might urge Lowey and fellow liberal Rep. Sue Kelley to fight as hard for Bush’s faith-based initiative as they have for pork. But don’t count on it. “We’re hoping that our delegation in Congress, which has been supportive of the county executive’s attempt to stop this, will stop this,” says Tolchin. Sam Dealey is a writer in Washington.
