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Activists Demand Action On Affordable Housing Settlement In Westchester

WESTCHESTER, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- The affordable housing showdown is heating up in Westchester County.

Civil rights activists in Harlem are demanding County Executive and gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino comply with affordable housing laws.

A settlement was reached in 2009 that requires the county to spend $51 million and build 750 units of fair and affordable housing in 31 mostly white communities by 2016, CBS 2 reported.

Community leaders say that hasn't happened yet.

"The monies that HUD had sent down to the county of Westchester was all spent in certain localities: Mount Vernon, Yonkers, Port Chester and Ossining, and no place else," said Gary Pretlow, (D) NYS Assembly - Yonkers. "What the government has said is that these monies should've been spent countywide."

Astorino has said he's in full compliance with the settlement, but that he will not comply with the federal government's demand to lift what they call "exclusionary zoning," which Astorino said was not in the agreement.

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