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Settlement Leaves Rockland County As Sole Defendant In Suit By HUD Claiming County Breached Years-Old Agreement To Provide 62 Affordable Units
The Village of Spring Valley has settled a federal lawsuit brought against it and Rockland County by the United States government to enforce the terms of a 2018 Voluntary Compliance Agreement (VCA) requiring Rockland County and Spring Valley to develop or rehabilitate affordable housing units.
The settlement agreement does not include Rockland County, which is continuing to defend itself against charges it breached an agreement with the Department of Housing And Urban Development (HUD).
The VCA resolved an earlier complaint filed with HUD alleging a private developer used HUD grant money given to Rockland County and the Village of Spring Valley to build 62 condominium units. The developer illegally designed and marketed the units to White Hasidic Jewish home buyers, and excluded prospective Black homebuyers from the process.
According to the lawsuit filed last January in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Rockland County and Spring Valley agreed in 2018 to ensure that a separate group of 62 affordable housing units would be developed or rehabilitated during a seven-year period. The terms required approximately 25 of the affordable units be built within the first three years of the Agreement, but only four affordable units meeting the requirements of the Agreement were completed.
The VCA required Rockland County and Spring Valley to develop or rehabilitate a total of 62 affordable housing units meeting specified criteria by deadlines set forth in the VCA (none of which were met), at least 22 of which were required to be located in the Village of Spring Valley. It also imposed affirmative marketing and affordability mandates, alongside other requirements.
As part of the settlement, Spring Valley acknowledges its failure to develop affordable units as required under the VCA and agrees to “reasonably ensure the development and/or rehabilitation of 22 Affordable Units for rental, which shall be affordable to and occupied by households with incomes at or below 75% of the Area Median Income (“AMI”) for Rockland County.” The units must be located in the Village of Spring Valley (unless HUD agrees to locations outside the village).
Thirteen of the rental units must completed by December 1, 2028; another five by December 1, 2029, and the remaining four by December 1, 2030. All of the units must be accessible to persons with disabilities in conformance with the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards (UFAS) and be marketed to residents of Spring Valley. And, the units must be deed restricted for at least 50 years requiring compliance with affordability requirement.
Spring Valley will also pay a civil penalty of $15,000 and agreed to monitoring, training, and periodic reporting and review by HUD.
Nothing in the settlement agreement released Rockland County from the lawsuit.
In response to the Complaint, Rockland County denied breaching the agreement, denied involvement in discrimination, attributed its inability to develop affordable housing to COVID, and says HUDs failure to meet its obligations under the agreement was also a contributing factor to the County’s failure to develop more than four affordable housing units.
The county also blamed the Village of Spring Valley, and filed a Cross-Claim against the Village asserting that “through its acts and omissions, impeded, blocked, and made it impossible for the County to fulfill its contractual obligations under the VCA.”
It also charged that the “Village has consistently failed to cooperate with the County in implementing the goals of the VCA, thereby obstructing the County’s ability to achieve the VCA-imposed goals within the Village’s jurisdiction.”
And, that the “Village’s leadership has been dysfunctional and resistant to developing more affordable housing that complies with the VCA, as evidenced by the Village Mayor’s open hostility and bald assertions that the Village is not bound by the VCA.”
Schenley Vital was elected Mayor of Spring Valley in November of 2025, subsequent to the filing of the lawsuit and was not involved in the VCA or the lawsuit prior to taking office.
The County also represented to the Court that it “has closed or expects to close on approximately 461 units of affordable housing within the next 12-24 months” and that the County is seeking to develop the County-owned Sain Building site in New City into mixed-use commercial and residential workforce housing.
In response to RCBJ’s request for details on the 461 units, a county spokesperson said that all of the units referred to in the County’s court filings are part of the County’s HALO project – the County’s “Housing Action Loan Opportunity” program, where direct loans are provided to developers in support of the creation or preservation of housing attainable to the average Rockland resident. Proceeds from loan repayments flow back to the fund for future housing opportunities.
The County’s HALO recipients are located in Nanuet (Nannawit Commons LLC) and the Village of Haverstraw (Chair Factory and Westhab). It is unclear if these projects meet the requirements of the VCA, as the VCA amended terms required 31 of the 58 units to be developed as “homeownership units”. All of the units developed with HALO contributions are rentals.
The other 27 units required under the VCA are designated as rentals to be occupied by households with incomes at or below sixty (60) percent of AMI.
