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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.

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.