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The Huntington Township Housing Coalition’s (HTHC) new 28-page report Huntington Housing Horizons 2030 received favorable coverage in Huntington Now in an article written by Pam Robinson.  Robinson says: “A housing coalition plans to present a report Monday to the Town Board on its findings, including recommendations for more affordable housing in Huntington. The 28-page Huntington Township Housing Coalition documents a shortage of affordable housing needed for a workforce essential to keeping residents here and to stopping businesses from moving away. The town’s Horizons 2020 report commissioned in 2008 found the following; • All segments of the population are affected by the scarcity of affordable housing in Huntington. • Rental housing options for Huntington’s lower-income residents are limited. • The shortage of decent affordable housing has resulted in the proliferation of illegal, overcrowded and sub-standard housing.“ We thank Huntington Now and Ms Robinson for the coverage. Read the entire article at Coalition to Recommend More Affordable Housing Click to POST to YOUR FACEBOOK.

The Huntington Township Housing Coalition’s (HTHC) new 28-page report Huntington Housing Horizons 2030 received favorable coverage in Long Island Business News (LIBN) in an article written by David Winzelberg.  Winzelberg says: “A new report presented by the Huntington Township Housing Coalition to Huntington’s town board Monday cites the critical need for affordable housing and outlines several steps the town should take to address the issue. The 28-page report, titled “Huntington Housing Horizons 2030: Documenting the need for affordable housing in Huntington,” claims the town has under-achieved its 2008 recommendation of adding nearly 2,800 units of affordable housing, as less than 18 percent of that number has been built in the last 12 years. Proposed actions to boost the supply of affordable housing include making accessory apartments easier to create; enacting the Melville Employment Center plan to allow for more mixed-use buildings that can create more affordable apartments; and end exemptions of a 2017 law that requires all new developments have a 20-percent affordable component.” It should be noted that while the caption on the picture of Creekside by the Harbor correctly reports the rent of the market rate apartments, the complex also contains several affordable units which are awarded by lottery by the town’s CDA.  We thank LIBN and Mr. Winzelberg for the coverage. Read the entire article at http://bit.ly/LIBN_More-Affordable-Housing Click to POST to YOUR FACEBOOK.

The Huntington Township Housing Coalition today published their new report on the state of affordable housing in Huntington.  Titled Huntington Housing Horizons 2030: Documenting the Need for Affordable Workforce Housing in Huntington, the report documents the need for affordable housing, looks at what has been built in Huntington since the town’s master plan, Horizons 2020, came out in 2008, and suggest steps that could be taken to create more affordable workforce housing. “Horizons 2020 projected that the town would need an additional 2789 affordable homes by 2020, and so with 2020 upon us we thought it was a good time to review whether the town achieved its goals,” said Roger Weaving, President of the HTHC.  “We’ve only built just over 500 affordable homes, or under 20% of the projected additional need.  The Town needs to do better.” The HTHC will be formally presenting the report to the town during the public portion of the Town of Huntington Board meeting at 100 Main Street, Huntington, NY, on Monday, January 13th, which begins at 2:00 PM.  “It’s clear that setting the zoning and other requirements as we have them will not produce the necessary housing,” said Weaving.  “We are calling on the Town Board to take an active lead in creating the conditions and working with landowners and developers who will produce the necessary housing.” While the report focuses on the Town of Huntington, its 28 footnoted pages contain comparative data on Brookhaven, Babylon, Oyster Bay, Smithtown, Hempstead, North Hempstead, and Islip that would make the report of interest to people who do not live and work in Huntington. In addition, the lack of affordable housing is a regional problem, and much of the data cited is regional in nature. To access the report, go to the HTHC website at https://huntingtonhousingcoalition.org/.  For a link directly to the report, please use http://huntingtonhousingcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/HTHC_200329_Huntington-Housing-Horizons_2030.pdf. For further information, please contact Roger Weaving, President, HTHC, at contact@huntingtonhousingcoalition.org, 631-793-1643. Click to POST to YOUR FACEBOOK.

Dear Supervisor Lupinacci and Members of the Town Board, The Huntington Township Housing Coalition appreciates your efforts to address the issues surrounding housing in the Town of Huntington, and especially those in the Village.  A thriving downtown attracts many potential customers, and if we do not address the issue of parking, we will choke off the health of commerce in the town. In addition, we recognize the need to take adequate steps to ensure the quality of our groundwater and our bay for generations to come. Of course, if we do not address our affordable housing crisis, then the people who work in our thriving restaurants and shops will have a difficult choice of either very long commutes from outside the town- often not possible for restaurant workers who get off their evening shift after the buses have run- or to live in illegal apartments, where they have no recourse should they find the building substandard or overcrowded.  The recently-passed ADU ordinance is a good step in that direction, but it is far from enough. At the HTHC we are very concerned about the effect the additional restrictions in the proposed changes to the C-6 law will have on building in the town of Huntington.  It is always difficult to build affordable units, and adding more steps and tighter restrictions will make it even more difficult.  We therefore suggest the following ideas: Keep the proposed restrictions specific to the already-sewered area of Huntington Village and Halesite.  It seems like most of the issues that people want addressed are specific to the Village, so let’s not overreach with the legislation, and keep the changes specific to the affected area.  Other parts of town have different geographies, different issues, and different water tables.  And broad sweeping laws can have unintended consequences.  If these changes stop all building in the Village, we are still going to need to build somewhere, or we will exacerbate our illegal apartment problem. Consider exempting projects that have a 50% or more affordable component from the new restrictions.  We are at a point where even people who are not fans of building more apartments will concede we need more affordable housing, so providing an incentive to create more than the presently-mandated 20% affordable quota may be welcomed by developers Build a new parking structure now.  If parking is the problem, then a parking structure is the answer, and it always has been.  A parking structure would allow the town to consider variances on parking for new apartment buildings, leading to the creation of more affordable units. Be very cautious about the wording of your language on architectural review.  While almost everyone can name at least one recently-built building in town they think is ugly (and not always the same one!), architectural review has a long history of being used as a tool for segregation and for stopping affordable housing.  By its very nature it is decided by more subjective judgement than other aspects of zoning, and requiring extra steps (like a full-blown architectural review board) or too many extra flourishes will drive up costs and make building affordably even less possible. Attack the water issues with the facts, not what people think the facts are.  Hypoxia in Long Island Sound and Huntington Bay is primarily due to excess nitrogen that comes from the run-off fertilizers for residents’ lawns, and the primary cause of pollution in the ground water is septic tanks.  Both fertilizer and septic tanks are characteristics of single-family homes, not apartments above stores.  Nor is the town waste treatment facility in any danger of reaching capacity any time soon, so there is plenty of time to consider expanding it if the town deems it necessary.  Can the town do a better job enforcing the rule that water that falls on your property stays on it, or by requiring offsets to allow the highway department to capture more water before it reaches the Village?  Absolutely.  But the answer to improving our groundwater and the water in the bay lies in restricting fertilizers and getting more homes on sewers and off septic tanks, not in forcing people into illegal apartments because we make it too hard to build the necessary living units. Again, we appreciate you trying to address some of the town’s longest-existing and most-pressing problems.  We hope you will consider our proposals. Sincerely, Roger Weaving Jr. President, Huntington Township Housing Coalition

The Huntington Township Housing Coalition appreciates the town’s efforts to address the issues surrounding housing in the Town of Huntington, and especially those in the Village. A thriving downtown attracts many potential customers, and if we do not address the issue of parking, we will choke off the health of commerce in the town. In addition, we recognize the need to take adequate steps to ensure the quality of our groundwater and our bay for generations to come. Of course, if we do not address our affordable housing crisis, then the people who work in our thriving restaurants and shops will have a difficult choice of either very long commutes from outside the town- often not possible for restaurant workers who get off their evening shift after the buses have run- or to live in illegal apartments, where they have no recourse should they find the building substandard or overcrowded. The recently-passed ADU ordinance is a good step in that direction, but it is far from enough. At the HTHC we are very concerned about the effect the additional restrictions in the proposed changes to the C-6 law will have on building in the town of Huntington. It is always difficult to build affordable units, and adding more steps and tighter restrictions will make it even more difficult. We therefore suggest the following ideas: Keep the proposed restrictions specific to the already-sewered area of Huntington Village and Halesite. It seems like most of the issues that people want addressed are specific to the Village, so let’s not overreach with the legislation, and keep the changes specific to the affected area. Other parts of town have different geographies, different issues, and different water tables. And broad sweeping laws can have unintended consequences. If these changes stop all building in the Village, we are still going to need to build somewhere, or we will exacerbate our illegal apartment problem. Consider exempting projects that have a 50% or more affordable component from the new restrictions. We are at a point where even people who are not fans of building more apartments will concede we need more affordable housing, so providing an incentive to create more than the presently-mandated 20% affordable quota may be welcomed by developers Build a new parking structure now. If parking is the problem, then a parking structure is the answer, and it always has been. A parking structure would allow the town to consider variances on parking for new apartment buildings, leading to the creation of more affordable units. Be very cautious about the wording of your language on architectural review. While almost everyone can name at least one recently-built building in town they think is ugly (and not always the same one!), architectural review has a long history of being used as a tool for segregation and for stopping affordable housing. By its very nature it is decided by more subjective judgement than other aspects of zoning, and requiring extra steps (like a full-blown architectural review board) or too many extra flourishes will drive up costs and make building affordably even less possible. Attack the water issues with the facts, not what people think the facts are. Hypoxia in Long Island Sound and Huntington Bay is primarily due to excess nitrogen that comes from the run-off fertilizers for residents’ lawns, and the primary cause of pollution in the ground water is septic tanks. Both fertilizer and septic tanks are characteristics of single-family homes, not apartments above stores. Nor is the town waste treatment facility in any danger of reaching capacity any time soon, so there is plenty of time to consider expanding it if the town deems it necessary. Can the town do a better job enforcing the rule that water that falls on your property stays on it, or by requiring offsets to allow the highway department to capture more water before it reaches the Village? Absolutely. But the answer to improving our groundwater and the water in the bay lies in restricting fertilizers and getting more homes on sewers and off septic tanks, not in forcing people into illegal apartments because we make it too hard to build the necessary living units. We appreciate the town board is trying to address some of the town’s longest-existing and most-pressing problems. We hope they will consider our proposals.

The following comments were submitted today to Huntington Town Hall: May 20,2019 Dear Supervisor Lupinacci and Members of the Town Board, The Huntington Township Housing Coalition strongly supports the proposed changes to the accessory dwelling unit law outlined in Resolution 2019-243. Accessory dwelling units (ADU’s) are the market-based solution that are the fastest, cheapest, least intrusive way to create affordable housing. The Town should be making every effort to increase their creation. House-based apartments currently have an average median rent 25% below similar-sized apartments in buildings, making them more affordable than even the affordable set-asides in new buildings. Their rents are often more stable over time; if the owner likes the tenant living in the same house, they tend to raise rents less often than a profit-making building would. They are the least intrusive because unlike a new apartment building, legal ADU’s cannot rise above 10% of the dwellings in a neighborhood, ensuring they do not concentrate in any one school district. Neighbors often don’t even know where the ADU’s are on their street. And because the footprint of the house usually doesn’t change when creating an ADU, the process at town hall is faster than that for creating new apartment buildings. The current law as written discriminates against owners of smaller houses with smaller frontages, which is why it is important to change the frontage minimum from 75’ to 50’. Often the owners of the smaller houses are those most in need of the additional income. Because there are no changes to the 10% cap, nor to the requirement to having parking for the owner and tenant off the street, lowering the minimum frontage will not result in more cars parked on the street, nor a flood of apartments into a particular neighborhood. Nor will the changes in the law result in a greater strain on our water systems or roads. When the CDA holds a lottery for affordable housing, over 80% of the people who apply already live and work in the town of Huntington. There people are already here. They are living in illegal apartments with no rights and potentially unsafe conditions, or in their parents’ basements below ground. Making the ADU law for flexible will not bring a rush of outsiders into the town, but will allow our citizens already living here to move into the light and on record in safer, legal apartments. ADU’s help relieve a number of important issues, but the current requirement that the homeowner live in the larger side of the home hampers the flexibility. Removing this restriction allows younger citizens to buy homes and live in the smaller part and rent out the bigger part, switching to the larger part as their family grows. It would allow older residents to age in place, using the income to help pay their ever-growing taxes. Even if they rent out the larger part of the home, the impact is no greater than when the older citizens had their children living with them. Homes with ADU’s are in such demand they currently sell for $50,000 more than equivalent homes without ADU’s as those young first-time homeowners need the extra income to make the mortgage and the taxes. Making the law more flexible will also help relieve the pressure to build more, larger apartment buildings. Statistics we’ve often quoted show how great the demand for apartments is; allowing ADU’s into a wider range of homes will help create supply without building large buildings. Please pass the resolution to reduce the minimum frontage and allow homeowners to live in either side of the home. Sincerely, Roger Weaving Jr President, HTHC

The Huntington Township Housing Coalition, in conjunction with the Huntington Chamber of Commerce, the League of Women Voters of Huntington, Leadership Huntington, Housing Help, the Huntington Public Library, the half Hollow Hills Public Library, and Latinos Unidos, is holding a summit on on affordable housing called “Community Conversation on Housing for All-Huntington Township”.  With opening remarks by Supervisor Chad Lupinacci, the event will have breakout sessions that cover how to afford your home, new legislation proposed for accessory apartments, the different types of housing that are currently in demand, and the impacts that housing choices have on the environment, traffic, and the character of the town.  The event will be held November 17th from 8:00 AM to Noon at the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington Registration is free, but we ask that if you plan to attend you register so we can plan which sessions end up in which theaters.  Registration can be done at huntingtonhousing.eventbrite.com.  A flyer detailing the event can be found here: CommConvoHousingFlyer4

This report draws from two-and-a half years of study by the Welfare-to-Work Commission’s Supportive Housing Work Group.  It assesses the critical shortage of housing for Suffolk’s most vulnerable residents at risk of becoming homeless: working-poor people earning under 50 percent of the Area Median Income ($55,400 for a family of four) and, more pointedly, people with mental illness who need supportive housing. The most recent count found 3,868 homeless people on Long Island. It costs Suffolk $19 million a year to shelter the homeless. Click to read the report: SWTW supportive housing report with cover letter

The Huntington Township Housing Coalition today released its 2018   Housing report 2018, an update of its 2016 report on housing built and proposed in the town of Huntington, NY, since the publication of the Town’s Horizons 2020 master plan. The report notes that only 27% of the affordable housing indicated in the plan has been proposed or built, with much of it remaining in the proposed stage.  It also notes that the town has far fewer rental apartments than the market needs.  It notes that there is a significant role for government in providing affordable housing, because the high demand for housing coupled with the slow pace of adding additional units would indicate that only market-rate units would be built without intervention. It proposes possible solutions to creating more affordable workforce housing, and calls for the town to take action.

Welfare to Work Commission 2017 Report The new Welfare to Work commission report has an important section on housing, describing the dire consequences of the new proposed HUD budget, which could eliminate 145,000 Section 8 vouchers​.