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12/5/2021 For Immediate release: Hunter Gross has been named the new president of the Huntington Township Housing Coalition.  Elected at the November directors meeting, he will take over in December.  Roger Weaving, the immediate past president, will serve as Vice President, Dick Koubek will serve as Secretary and Kelly Smith will remain as Treasurer.  We’re excited to have Hunter lead us into 2022,” Weaving said.  “He has spoken eloquently and passionately about the need for affordable housing both on the campaign trail and before the town board.”  “We had a large audience for our meet the candidates night, and I’ll be looking to build upon that success,” Gross said.  “There’s still a lot of work to be done”.  “I look forward to ensuring the next Huntington Town Board does their duty of alleviating the housing crisis, if not we’ll put pressure on them every step of the way.” The HTHC is a strong supporter of the Matrinecock Court development currently before the Town Board. The HTHC’s mission is to encourage the development of affordable new and rehabilitated homes, both rental and ownership, for low and moderate income individuals and families in Huntington. We do this by assessing and documenting the need; educating the public; identifying, monitoring, and promoting affordable housing opportunities and collaborating with other public and private organizations. For further information contact: Hunter Gross, President, HTHC hunterforhuntington@gmail.com (631) 601-6810 Roger Weaving, Vice President, HTHC rwjr44@gmail.com 631-793-1643

On September 27, 2021, all the candidates for Huntington Town Supervisor and Town Board appeared in a live panel discussion hosted by the Huntington Township Housing Coalition, during which each agreed that the Town needs more affordable homes. While they saw the need for more parking and infrastructure such as sewers, they also saw Huntington’s need for more affordable housing. Click here to READ MORE

Page 17 of the Sept 23 issue of The Long Islander contains a story about the HTHC Meet the Candidates event that was streamed live on Facebook and can be viewed at https://www.facebook.com/HuntingtonTHC/videos/537017944028556 To read the story, CLICK HERE.

HUD has released the income guidelines for 2021.  These guidelines affect who is eligible to apply for housing in developments that have received HUD money. The income limits depend on family size.  The Area Median Income (AMI) for our area is $129,900.  A commonly-used standard is 80% of AMI.  As you can see on the chart, 80% of AMI for a family of four is $94,900, while 80% of AMI for a single person is $66,450.

To watch video recording of this event, CLICK HERE All are invited to join us this Monday, September 20th @7PM for HTHC and Housing Help Inc.’s Meet the Candidates Night. It will be streamed *LIVE* from the HTHC Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/HuntingtonTHC

By Roger Weaving Jr The Long Island Regional Planning Council released a report showing that multifamily housing developments recently built on Long Island produce fewer students than expected, and produce more tax revenue than it costs to educate the students who live there.   One of the developments studied was Avalon at Huntington, which added 56 students to the local schools, which, if spread evenly over elementary, middle, and high school, is about 18 students per school.  At a cost to educate the students of $8160/ student, this would add a $456,942 cost burden to the school district- but the real estate tax revenue and direct payments generated by Avalon are $849,485, resulting in a net  positive cash flow to the school district of over $390,000. Long Island has a severe housing shortage, along with a shortage of land.  Building with density is the only way we can meet our housing needs. The study can be found here: https://lirpc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Long-Island-Multifamily-Impacts-Final-3.11.21.pdf

By Maura McDermott Long Islanders’ housing costs have risen by 24% since 2000 even as median household income has fallen by 1.6%, according to a new report that recommends building up the region’s downtowns and allowing more housing options. Nearly 6 in 10 renters and more than one in three homeowners on Long Island shell out more than 30% of their income for rent and utilities or homeownership costs such as mortgage, property taxes and insurance, the Manhattan-based nonprofit planning and advocacy group Regional Plan Association said in a report released Wednesday. The report, at nwsdy.li/RPA, includes detailed profiles of Long Island’s 13 towns, two cities and 96 villages, as well as 85 of the region’s largest unincorporated areas. Click here to READ MORE >>

This week the Town Board effectively ended all building of apartments in Huntington Village by passing amendments to the C6 Zoning that unnecessarily increase the parking requirements and limit upper floors to 150% of the ground floor footprint.  These added cost burdens make it impossible to build affordable housing for our residents, and indeed, will likely make it impossible to build any more apartments at all.  The Town has known since their 2008 master plan that we need at least 10,000 more homes and at least 2000 affordable homes.  With land in limited supply, the only way we can approach these numbers is the kind of developments that involve apartments, and apartments need sewers to handle the density.  As it happens, the changes in the law passed in 2017 have already stopped new developments from being filed as the existing parking requirements are too onerous.   Effectively banning further development by increasing parking requirements even further in one of the few sewered areas of town is a slap in the face to the workers of Huntington. The timing is especially poor coming in the midst of the pandemic.  Among the lowest paid jobs on Long Island are home health care workers, phlebotomists, and medical, dental, and nursing assistants- our front-line workers against COVID-19.  Nor will it help the very people who make our village vibrant; cashiers, retail sales clerks, and just about every occupation in a restaurant are also listed among the lowest paid.  Housing is not like the Field of Dreams; workers will come where the jobs are whether we build housing or not.  By not providing affordable housing we force people to crowd together in apartments, exacerbating the chances of contagion.  If they find affordable housing farther away, then they add to the traffic problems and require parking near work.  It’s much better to create housing closer to where they work. We call on the town to present a plan of action to create the 10,000 homes their own plan said we need.  We agree with the three-story limits on buildings and with the need to take adequate protections of our water in the ground and in the bay.  Throwing up barriers to creating housing without presenting a plan on where and how it should be built is an inadequate response that harms our residents most in need, and makes us all poorer as a result. Roger Weaving, Jr., President, Huntington Township Housing Coalition Click to POST to YOUR FACEBOOK.

The Huntington Township Housing Coalition (HTHC) is pleased to present a panel discussion on why we need affordable housing and what we can do to create more of it in Huntington.  The Zoom panel meeting will take place at 7:00 PM Monday June 15th.  After initial remarks by each of the panelists we will ask questions that have been submitted in advance.  The panel discussion will end at 8:00PM, but we will keep the Zoom session going for another half hour for group discussion. Joining us on the panel will be:– Chad Lupinacci, Huntington Town Supervisor– Joan Cergol, Huntington Town Councilperson– Phil Rugile, Director of Innovation, Launchpad Huntington– Christopher Silliman, Staff Designer, H2M To send in questions, please email Roger at contact@huntingtonhousingcoalition.org. To join the Zoom meeting, click here:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89699784983?pwd=Ymk0YUJIOEl4Z3YwbGpyL2NSRGZtUT09 Meeting ID: 896 9978 4983Password: 711276Dial by your location        +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) To read the HTHC recommendations in Housing Horizons 2030, go here:https://huntingtonhousingcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/HTHC_200329_Huntington-Housing-Horizons_2030.pdf We hope to see you at the panel discussion!Roger WeavingPresident, HTHC Click to POST to YOUR FACEBOOK.

The Huntington Township Housing Coalition (HTHC), a 501 c3 organization dedicated to encouraging the development of affordable new and rehabilitated homes, both rental and ownership, for low and moderate income individuals and families in Huntington, is offering to discuss the issues surrounding affordable workforce housing with any person running for any local, county, or state office that can potentially affect housing in Huntington.  This includes, but is not limited to, zoning, land use, water quality, sewers and waste treatment, traffic, and parking.  Individuals can come to one of our steering committee or directors’ meetings, or we can come to a candidates’ office.  Please note that as a 501c 3 organization we cannot endorse any individual running or office. The HTHC also extends this offer to any organization, such as faith based groups and civic associations, that want to learn more about affordable workforce housing.  Please contact us at contact@huntingtonhousingcoalition.org to arrange a meeting. Click to POST to YOUR FACEBOOK.