US News

W’CHESTER VOWS TO BE LESS WHITE

Westchester County has agreed to build more than $50 million worth of affordable housing in an effort to persuade minorities to move into its predominantly white towns.

The bombshell plan, announced yesterday to settle a $180 million discrimination lawsuit, includes building or buying 750 apartments or houses, 630 of them in neighborhoods less than 3 percent black or 7 percent Hispanic.

“Westchester can no longer hide from the ugly reality of continuing residential segregation,” said Craig Gurian, executive director of the Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro New York, which brought the suit.

Whites may buy or rent the new homes, but the units will be marketed nationally and in areas with large nonwhite populations.