SPRING VALLEY – The settlement of a federal lawsuit against the Village of Spring Valley has been reached that will result in the completion of 22 units of affordable rental housing in the village over the next five years.

The settlement under the Fair Housing Act resolves a claim that the village breached a voluntary compliance agreement and conciliation agreement that it entered into in 2018 with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

According to the complaint filed in White Plains federal court and the agreement entered by the court, the voluntary compliance agreement (VCA) between HUD, Spring Valley and Rockland County resolved a prior HUD investigation into allegations regarding a private developer who used HUD funds overseen by the village and the county to build affordable housing, but unlawfully designed and marketing the resulting units almost exclusively for sale to  white Hasidic Jewish prospective homebuyers, in violation of federal law.

Administrative complaints made to HUD alleged that Spring Valley and Rockland County became aware of allegations that the developer was excluding interested homebuyers based on protected characteristics, but failed to ensure that appropriate remedial steps were taken before the project was completed and the units were sold.

In 2018, the village and county entered into the agreement with HUD to resolve those complaints.

The VCA required the village and county to build 62 affordable housing units meeting specific criteria for affordability by specific deadlines. Only four units qualifying as such were built by the time the federal lawsuit was filed in 2025.

The resolution between the federal government and the village requires Spring Valley to ensure completion of 22 units by December 2030.

Those units are required to be occupied by households with incomes at or below 75 percent of the area median income in Rockland.

Spring Valley also agreed to pay a $15,000 penalty.

The lawsuit against Rockland County remains pending.d