An elected Democratic county legislator in Westchester County, New York, is facing investigation for allegedly purchasing an apartment in New York City through an affordable housing program that he allegedly turned into an investment property .
A spokeswoman for New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development said the department is investigating whether Westchester Board of Legislators Chairman Vedat Gashi, a Democrat from Yorktown, violated a regulatory agreement governing a 12-unit building. on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the Rockland /Westchester Journal News reported last week.
Gashi and his wife have owned a four-bedroom affordable co-op in Manhattan since 2015, the outlet’s Tax Watch column reported. Under the co-op’s regulatory agreement, the apartment must serve as Gashi’s primary residence. The Westchester Democrat, however, has a separate five-bedroom, 4,000-square foot residence in Yorktown where he lives with his family, the outlet reported. That house is worth less than $1 million.
The co-op’s board can grant written exemptions to the rule, which Gashi said he was granted, but did not provide proof of the exemption, according to the Rockland/Westchester Journal News. Gashi serves as secretary of the co-op’s board, according to the outlet.
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Westchester County Democratic legislator Vedat Gashi. (Lawmaker Vedat Gashi/Facebook)
The apartment is listed as a business venture on Gashi’s financial disclosure statement to the county, the outlet reported. Gashi said he was renting the apartment but did not specify how long he had lived in the building.
A spokesman for New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, William Fowler, said apartments like Gashi’s can be sublet for up to 18 months over five years, but must still be used as a primary residence. of the owner. The city’s affordable housing program allows tax breaks for shareholders as part of its mission to offer affordable housing options to low-income New Yorkers.
“That was not the intention of the program,” Fowler told the Rockland/Westchester Journal News. “This is housing for low- to moderate-income New Yorkers, not for a county legislator in Westchester County.”
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Gashi is a real estate lawyer who was first elected to the county board in 2019, before becoming chairman of the county legislature in May of this year.
Gashi, who emigrated as a child from the former Yugoslavia, denied any wrongdoing in a statement last week.
“My husband and I worked and saved to buy this apartment in 2015 to be our family home for us and our children,” he said. “Our family has grown and we’ve moved back to my childhood home in Yorktown, where my wife and children now live and my children go to school. of living in this building from the cooperative, including making sure we’re qualified to buy.”
Another Democratic Westchester County legislator, Chris Johnson, resigned last month after moving out of his affordable condo in his district and into a nearly $800,000 home outside his district, the Rockland/Westchester Journal News reported on that time. Gashi served on a committee that launched an investigation into Johnson’s housing earlier this summer.
Westchester County Office Building. (Google Map )
The Westchester County Board of Legislators also came under fire in April when a legislative aide was fired months after an operation allegedly found him texting obscene messages to what he believed to be a 14-year-old girl.
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Gashi, who is running for re-election as a Westchester County legislator, has faced criticism from his Republican challenger Dan Branda for allegedly violating the regulatory agreement.
Light falls on the New York skyline at sunset, Nov. 20, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, File)
“It’s insulting that Vedat tried to claim special permits or ignorance about the legal restrictions of his 4-bedroom affordable housing apartment,” Branda said, according to the Rockland/Westchester Journal News. “His feigned ignorance is like an experienced pilot pretending not to recognize the controls of the cockpit. Someone as sophisticated and experienced as Vedat cannot be inept in the arena in which he built his career.”
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Neither Gashi’s office nor New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for further comment on the matter.
