New HUD Rule Takes Control of Local Zoning

How many broken communities will be enough?

BY LYNN TEGER

HUD plans to take local zoning out of the hands of local governments. This violates the NYS Constitution and is a big power grab by the Federal government.

Since Governor Cuomo plans on making NYS a “source of income” state, taking Section 8 tenants will no longer be voluntary. Property owners will be forced to take Section 8 tenants in every neighborhood. Section 8 tenants hurt the bottom line of investors with loss of rent and strict regulations. It should be up to every property owner to determine whether or not they would like to take a section 8 tenant and weigh out how it affects their bottom line.

HUD wants to change the laws to force integration in your neighborhood. Shouldn’t people have the right to live where they want? What about the potential of increasing crime in every neighborhood? Also, how will it affect property values?

I believe in Fair Housing Laws and there should be no discrimination, but this law will social engineer every neighborhood in America and local citizens will not have any say. You could end up having a multi-family housing development built on the street where you live. It is already happening in NYC.

Apartment developers can apply for HUD and other taxpayer funded incentives to build multifamily housing and apartments over stores. This means preferred developers will get to use our tax money to finance and profit from building multi-family housing.

This new rule they are proposing, flies in the face of laws already written in the Civil Rights Act of 1968 such as the concept of steering, which is illegal, yet HUD is now going to be in the business of what is known as “steering” people into neighborhoods.

By implementing this rule, HUD will be changing the already existing fair housing laws enacted by Congress. Definition of Steering: “Social steering is a form of housing discrimination that involves housing authorities, real estate companies and even local governments steering certain groups of people, often minorities, into certain areas of a city.”

How can HUD substantively and unilaterally change an existing law that originally needed congressional approval and call it a “Rule”? The original fair housing laws had to be passed by an Act of Congress.

HUD is funded by taxpayer money. All municipalities that take HUD grants are being funded by taxpayer money appropriated by the Federal government which is now $17 trillion in debt. NYS, according to Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is currently at a $2 billion budget gap and expected to rise to $2.9 billion over the next 2 years. People are out of work and leaving NYS in droves.

Where will the tax base come from? With this program every neighborhood will end up like Detroit and more towns will become insolvent.

When the Federal government is not financially stable; when NYS, is currently at a $2 billion budget gap and expected to rise to $2.9 billion; when Westchester is the highest taxed County in the nation and Rockland is the third highest taxed County in the nation – where exactly are these funds to support this coming from?

Since 2008, people of all races, creeds and colors have been, and continue to lose their homes due to high taxes and the poor job market. These HUD and other government incentive programs drain taxpayer money and will cause taxes to rise on every level of government. It will do nothing to help people hold on to the homes they have.

Last night I spoke to someone who helps people in foreclosure and was told that the foreclosures in Rockland County are higher now than ever. This program guarantees that Americans will continue to see a rise in taxes. We will be taxed out of our homes.

These highly taxpayer funded laws being implemented will only hurt those people trying to hang on to their homes. It does nothing to help any community lower taxes, and in fact, is draining our taxes incrementally, while the middle class is being wiped out.

  cuomo, detroit homes, HUD, state income