NYC probes Westchester county legislator's affordable co-op used as investment property
Another day, another Westchester County legislator with an apartment purchased through an affordable housing program that he's using as an investment property.
This time, it’s Board of Legislators Chairman Vedat Gashi, D-Yorktown.
Gashi served on a committee that in July launched an inquiry leading to the resignation of Yonkers Legislator Chris Johnson. Johnson had moved out of his district while renting his affordable condominium in violation of city of Yonkers regulations.
A Tax Watch investigation has found that Gashi and his wife, Vjosa, since 2015 have owned a four-bedroom affordable co-op at West 88th Street and Columbus Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The apartment should be Gashi’s primary residence, according to the co-op’s regulatory agreement with the city of New York.
The co-op board, however, can offer an exception in writing.
Gashi, who serves as the co-op board’s secretary, said he has such written approval, but has declined to provide it.
More: Chris Johnson resigns as Westchester legislator, ending need for residency investigation
Affordable unit listed as business venture
Meanwhile, Gashi lives with his family in a five-bedroom, four-bathroom Yorktown home with 4,000 square feet of living space on Rustic Ridge Court, which the town values for $968,000. Gashi lists the affordable apartment in Manhattan as a business venture on his financial disclosure statement filed with Westchester County.
New York City’s affordable housing program allows shareholders like Gashi to sublet their units for up to 18 months during five-year periods. Even then, the apartment, purchased through New York City’s Housing Development Fund Corporation affordable co-op program, must remain Gashi’s primary residence, said William Fowler, spokesman for the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
Fowler said the program delivers property-tax breaks to shareholders in its mission to provide affordable home-purchase opportunities for low-income New York City residents seeking to buy a place to call home. The tax break is huge.
City records show the tax break provides an exemption on 75% on the taxable value of the building, reducing the estimated property-tax bill for 2023 to $52,546 for its 12 co-op apartments and street-level commercial spaces.
Fowler said the department is probing whether Gashi has violated the regulatory agreement that governs the 12-unit building, which has landmark status and includes the Bodega 88 restaurant on Columbus Avenue. The affordable co-op program was not designed to create investment opportunities, he said.
“That was not the program’s intention,” said Fowler. “This is housing for low-to-moderate income New Yorkers, not for a county legislator in Westchester County.”
New York City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, D-Manhattan, whose district includes West 88th Street, backed the city's inquiry into Gashi's inclusion of the affordable co-op in his real-estate investment portfolio.
"It's outrageous," said Brewer. "These are supposed to be for low-income people, not used as investment properties."
Gashi told Tax Watch that he’s renting the affordable unit on West 88th Street, though he declined to say for how long.
“I don’t live there now,” said Gashi.
Gashi says he's complied with NYC regulations
The Gashis purchased the four-bedroom apartment with one bathroom for $849,000 in 2015, city records show. At the time, they were required to have a combined income no greater than 120% of the area median income, said Fowler. That year, the income limit was $82,950 for a couple or $103,600 for a family of four, according to federal guidelines.
Gashi, a real-estate attorney, is also a member of a limited liability corporation that paid $1.6 million in 2009 for a 25-unit apartment complex at University Avenue and 188th Street in the Bronx.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Gashi said he’d complied with all city regulations.
“My wife and I worked and saved to purchase this apartment in 2015 to be our family home for us and our children,” he said. “Our family has grown and we have made our way back to my childhood home in Yorktown, where my wife and kids and I now reside and my kids attend school. We have followed every housing rule and have always sought explicit written permission for our use of residence in this building from the cooperative, including ensuring that we qualified to purchase.”
Somers Republican Dan Branda, who is running against Gashi in the November 7 election, said it appears that Gashi has abused the affordable housing program by making his affordable unit part of his real estate investment portfolio.
He wants the Board of Legislators to investigate its chairman.
“It's insulting that Vedat would try to claim special permissions or ignorance about the legal restrictions of his 4-bedroom affordable housing apartment,” said Branda. “His feigned ignorance is akin to an experienced pilot pretending not to recognize the cockpit controls. Someone as sophisticated and experienced as Vedat cannot be this feckless in the arena that he's built his career upon.”
Branda said Gashi's ownership of the affordable apartment, which requires it to be his primary residence, calls into question his voter registration in Westchester.
"If Vedat has a contract with New York City to maintain his primary residence in Manhattan in exchange for substantial property tax breaks, he's never been eligible to be our elected representative, much less even vote in Westchester," Branda said.
Affordable housing program dates to 1970s
Gashi’s affordable co-op on West 88th Street comes under New York City’s Housing Development Fund Corporation program, which was developed in the late 1970s to address the raft of decrepit apartment buildings that became city property through tax foreclosures and condemnation. The city set up the program under the state’s Private Housing Finance Law to address the needs of persons and families of low income.
When the program began, tenants were sold the apartments for as little as $250, the New York Times reported. Tax subsidies lowered the carrying costs. Owners were required to split their profits from the sales of units, with owners at 72 West 88th Street, for example, required to pay 30% of their profits to the co-operative association.
Over the years, prices for the units have shot up, putting them out of reach for the low-income and moderate income people they were designed to serve.
For Gashi, the inquiry by New York City housing officials comes at the highpoint of his political career. He’s had great ambitions since moving back to Yorktown in 2017 to his current home on Rustic Ridge Court. His brother, Esat, transferred title to him in 2018, records show.
Gashi, 45, was first elected to the county board in 2019 in a district that comprises Yorktown, Somers and New Castle. That came a year after he lost his bid to oust state Assemblyman Kevin Byrne, R-Mahopac.
In 2022, Gashi had his eyes on the U.S. Congress when he was among three Democrats challenging U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-Yonkers in the 16th Congressional District. He finished second, with 23% of the vote.
Gashi family emigrated from Kosovo
Gashi, who was born in Kosovo in the former Yugoslavia, emigrated with his family to the Bronx 41 years ago, when he was 4 years old. His family, which included five children, moved to Yorktown, where they all attended Lakeland schools. Several of his siblings still live in Yorktown, including Esat, a real estate developer.
Esat is among 5 Gashi relatives enrolled to vote who use Vedat Gashi’s home address in Yorktown, in addition to Gashi and his wife, according to county records.
City Councilwoman Brewer said Gashi's use of the affordable co-op as an investment property highlights abuses in the program that have escalated in recent years, as co-op boards have failed to enforce city guidelines.
HPD spokesman Fowler said the establishment of a citywide co-op monitor program has helped, providing city oversight of the co-op boards that run the housing development corporation buildings. However, the program was not retroactive to buildings established in 2004.
“We needed more oversight,” said Fowler. “But this building precedes that law. So the co-op board is responsible for monitoring the shareholders to make sure they are in compliance.”
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David McKay Wilson writes about tax issues and government accountability. Follow him on Twitter @davidmckay415 or email him at dwilson3@lohud.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Vedat Gashi's 'affordable' Upper West Side co-op under scrutiny by NYC
