Huntington Township Housing Coalition

Registration Now Open for 2016 Housing Summit

Registration is now open for the November 19, 2016 housing summit: Keeping Our Young People in Huntington The Need for Affordable Rental Housing and Downtown Revitalization Registration and attendance are free,but it will help us to plan if you could please register in advance. Register now @www.hthcsummit.eventbrite.com

HTHC to have Housing Summit November 19th

The Huntington Township Housing Coalition, in association with the League of Women Voters of Huntington, is sponsoring a housing summit on November 19th at the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington.  Titled “Keeping Our Young People in Huntington…The Need for Affordable Rental Housing and Downtown Revitalization”, the summit will have speakers including town officials, businesses, and local civic associations.  For more details see the flyer: HTHC rental housing summit SAVE THE DATE flyer

Melville Plan Offers Affordable Housing Opportunities

At the  June 23rd Huntington Housing Coalition General Membership meeting, we announced an opportunity for affordable housing that shows great promise.  Responding to the Huntington 2020 Master Plan’s call for development of an integrated land-use plan for the  Melville Corridor, the Town hired a  company that, with community input, developed a Melville Employment Center plan suggesting re-zoning that would shift the area from exclusive commercial to mixed use, including the possible creation of 495 residential units. In the past several weeks, we have met with Supervisor Frank Petrone and then with Huntington staff who helped develop the plan.  In our conversation with Supervisor Petrone, we pointed out that the current Huntington Homes Law  requires a 20% affordable housing set aside ONLY when a residential property is downzoned – meaning it is rezoned for higher density, say from one acre to multi-family housing.  The Law does not apply when a property is rezoned from commercial to mixed use that includes residential.  Supervisor Petrone agreed with us that the Law could be amended so that the affordable housing requirement would apply in such situations, such as the Melville plan. Last night we received a unanimous vote at the General Membership meeting for our Coalition to move forward advocating for this change in the Huntington Homes Law. We are currently in discussion with Town officials about language that might be used in the amendment.  We are also planning a meeting  with Town officials and other stakeholders to discuss the inclusion of affordable family housing in the Melville plan.   This is one of the most important affordable housing developments that we have seen. Here is the link to the current edition of the LI Business News cover story on the Melville plan http://libn.com/2016/06/24/melville-makeover/ and here is the link  to the plan itself: www.huntingtonny.gov/mec We will keep you informed as the Melville process goes forward.  As of now, we will not have a General Membership meeting in July.  Our next General Membership meeting will be at 6:30PM on Monday, September 26th at the Dolan Family Health Center.

Home Buyer Grants for First-time Home Buyers!

Attention all prospective First Time Home Buyers! Suffolk County will be announcing their First Time Home Buyer grant program in early September.  You could be eligible for a $14,000 grant towards a down payment on your first home. Housing Help Inc. is authorized by Suffolk to provide the required Pre-Purchase education in order to qualify for the grant.  If you are interested in the program call Susan at 631-754-0373 for details.

Coalition Supports Renaissance Housing But Calls for More Affordable Rentals Throughout Huntngton

The Huntington Township Housing Coalition has consistently supported the Renaissance Downtowns economic revitalization goals for Huntington Station.  We have consistently argued that attainable rental housing for young people and seniors should be a part of this economic revitalization.  At the same time, we believe that affordable rental housing, for young people, seniors and especially families, needs to be created in all parts of the Town of Huntington. Here is our letter to the Town Board and Zoning Board of Appeals that was sent on April 1st and published in the April 7 edition of The Long Islander HTHC Renaissance letter April 2016.

“The Eviction Economy”

Harvard sociologist Matthew Desmond has published a new study, “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City,” that is being hailed as a seminal work on how the lack of affordable housing is ruing the lives of low-income Americans.  On February 12th, 2106, The New York Times reviewer wrote: “After ‘Evicted,’ it will no longer be possible to have a serious discussion about poverty without having a serious discussion about housing. Like Jonathan Kozol’s ‘Savage Inequalities,’ or Barbara Ehrenreich’s ‘Nickeled and Dimed,’ or Michelle Alexander’s ‘The New Jim Crow,’ this sweeping, years-long project makes us consider inequality and economic justice in ways we previously had not.”  On March 6th, Professor Desmond wrote a compelling essay in The Times which documents some of his key findings. This is a must read for Coalition supporters and all people of good will who care about homelessness and the suffering caused by the lack of safe and affordable housing options for poor people.  The article can be accessed here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/06/opinion/sunday/the-eviction-economy.html?_r=0

General Membership Meeting Monday, March 28th, 12 Noon-2:00 PM. Two presentations: LIPC “Power Up” and “Rubuild America-LI”

Survey Shows Long Islanders are More Accepting of Multi-Family Housing

Newsday reported on December 17th, 2015 that a just-released study by the Long Island Index found that Long Islanders are growing more accepting of multi-family hosing options, instead of the traditional single family home that has dominated our landscape.  “Nearly 30 percent of Island respondents would like to live in an apartment, condominium or town house within five years – double the number who live in such housng types now.”  In addition, the survey found that 60percent of Long islanders (compare with 49 percent of Northern New York and Connecticut suburbs) said that “the lack of affordable hosing is a very or extremely serious problem in their area.”  This shift in public opinion is significant. Our elected officials who are wed to single-family ownership homes and who oppose multi-family housing need to catch up with their constituents. Here is the link to the Newsday story: http://www.newsday.com/business/liers-grow-more-supportive-of-downtown-apartments-survey-1.11233218

Regional Plan Association Profile of LI Housing

The Regional Plan Association in conjunction with the LI Community Foundation has produced a hosing profile for each town and village on Long Island.  This report is can be found at the website of  the newly-formed Long Island Attainable Housing Task Force  of St. Joseph’s College.  HTHC has a seat on this task force.  You can access the full report and then scroll down to the Town of Huntington.  It’s worth a visit.  For openers, only 15% of Huntington’s housing stock is rental housing compared with 18% for Suffolk County and 38% for Westchester County.  We have a lot of work to do!   Here is the link to the report: http://www.sjcny.edu/long-island/communitysolutions/attainablehomes HTHC will use this report to provide detailed look at Town of Huntington housing needs,

HTHC Meets with Young Professionals on Housing Needs

There is an urgent need for affordable housing – particularly rental housing – for young people in Huntington. This fall, a dozen members of the Young Professionals of the Huntington and Melville Chambers of Commerce participated in an extraordinary conversation about this housing shortage with leaders of the Huntington Township Housing Coalition. The Young Professionals already had heard the grim statistics about the “brain drain” of young people off Long Island because they cannot find housing. In fact, these young people are the faces behind the statistics. None of them was surprised that Huntington is one of the affluent towns on Long Island losing the largest number of its young people because rental housing and starter homes are just not attainable here. The young people in the room ranged in age from 26 to 42. They were men and women, black, Hispanic and white, all with college degrees, all business professionals. They want to live and work in Huntington. Most cannot. One young person is renting in Mastic Beach with an almost two-hour round trip commute to her Huntington job. Others expressed real anger and frustration that, at almost 30 years of age, they are still living with their parents because they cannot find an affordable rental apartment. Some asked outright why the Town has allowed so many affordable senior homes to be built while creating very few housing opportunities for their generation. And, throughout the night, there was real sadness that some of them may have to leave a Town they love simply because they cannot find housing here. Here is some of what the young professionals told us: • “I love Huntington and really want to both live and work here. But I can’t find a place to live in this Town.” • I set my 30th birthday as the benchmark for moving out of my parents’ home. But that birthday came and went and I am still living with them because I cannot find an affordable rental.” • “I am a college graduate earning $40,000 a year which is not enough to afford a Huntington rental but too much to qualify for affordable rental housing.” • “Why does the town keep building affordable homes for senior citizens and nothing for our generation? We are the ones being forced to leave. We are the ones they should be trying to keep in Huntington.” • “After spending hundreds of thousands of tax dollars educating us in Huntington’s public schools, we move away because we can’t find housing in Huntington.” Our conversation was not just a gripe session. By the end of the evening, our Coalition and the Young Professionals committed to work together educating and advocating for more affordable rental and ownership homes in Huntington. Each of the Young Professionals organizations pledged to create an Affordable Housing Committee and several members are taking directors’ seats on Huntington Township Housing Coalition. Perhaps the most important point made that night was that the voice of young professionals must be heard by Town officials. Going forward, We are sure they will be heard.