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On Tuesday, October 6th, over our Coalition’s objections, the Town Board adopted arbitrary and vague  restrictions on two-family homes that will require applicants wishing to either convert a one-family to a two-family or construct a new two-family home.  Among these restrictions, which far exceed those required of applicants who want to create an accessory apartment or a non-owner occupied rental, are: Having to show a “severe hardship” in order for the application to be granted; Constructing the two-family home so that it “appears” to be a one-family home, without any definition as to what a one-family home should “appear” to be; Owning the home for at least five years. The Town Code now virtually excludes two-family homes from being created, which is why over the past several decades, only .08 such homes have been approved per year.  These restrictions are but another wedge causing young people to leave Huntington because they cannot afford to find a home here. Two-family homes provide another important housing option that could expand the stock of desperately-needed affordable housing in Huntington. How desperate is this need? Just last week, on the evening of September 29th, HTHC leaders met for two hours with a dozen Young Professionals from the Huntington and Melville Chambers of Commerce to discuss their housing needs. All are college graduates, employed in Huntington and very anxious to live in our beautiful town. But they cannot because we simply do not have rental or ownership housing that they can access. They are angry and frustrated. Here is some of what they 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 found an affordable rental apartment in Mastic Beach, but I now have to commute almost two hours round-trip to my Huntington job I’d give anything to find an affordable rental 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 know the statistics about the brain drain. We are the actual faces behind the large numbers of young people moving out of Huntington due to the lack of housing.” It was on their behalf that HTHC opposes the restrictions placed on two-family homes.  We hope to meet with Councilwoman Tracey Edwards, sponsor the the resolution, to discuss mitigating some of the Code’s more onerous restrictions.

Wednesday, September 16th, HTHC Steering Committee member Roger Weaving spoke at a Huntington Town Board public hearing in opposition to Resolution 2015-392 that would place even more onerous restrictions on the conversion to or creation of two-family homes in R5 districts. Two-family homes, while rare in Huntington, are yet another housing mode which can add to the stock of much-needed affordable homes in the Town, thereby helping to stem the flow of young people out of Huntington. The current law requires that a single- family home converted into a two-family home be at least five years old and that the applicant for the conversion show “hardship” if the request is not granted. The proposed amendments would require that an applicant show “severe hardship” before a two-family home can be either converted or constructed.  Both the original law and the proposed amendments are filled with arbitrary and vague language, such as a requirement in 2015-392 that the two-family home “appear” like a single-family home, with no language in the legislation that describes what a single-family home should “appear” to be. HTHC is therefore opposing 2015-392 and has called on the Town Board to revisit the original restrictions on two-family homes.  You can read the HTHC letter to the Town Board here: HTHC two family homes FINAL letter

A September 6th, 2015 New York Times editorial titled, “The Architecture of Segregation,” observed that, almost 50 years after the federal Fair Housing Act was enacted, “minorities find themselves trapped in high poverty neighborhoods without decent housing, schools or jobs, and with few avenues of escape”  because, in part, “federally subsidized housing for low-income citizens … is disproportionately built in poor areas….”  This pattern of confining low-income residents to communities with significant minority populations – like Huntington Station – while denying them a chance to live in ” high opportunity” communities – like Dix Hills –  has been encouraged by programs such as New York State’s administration of the Federal Low  Income Housing Tax Credits program.  According to ERASE Racism, “families living in ‘affordable housing’ subsidized by Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) are excluded from opportunity and  have to accept failing schools, high concentrations of poverty and racial segregation.  This is because New York State’s scoring system that is used to determine which projects will be funded, places scant emphasis on projects that are located in high-opportunity neighborhoods.”  To counter this policy, HTHC supports ERASE Racism’s petition calling on New York State to grant LIHTC subsidies for affordable housing in high opportunity neighborhoods.  Please sign  the petition at: http://www.eraseracismny.org/get-involved/sign-a-petition

The Huntington Township hosing Coalition will host a meet and greet for the Huntington and Melville Chambers of Commerce “Young Professionals” on Tuesday, September 29th, 7:00-9:00 PM at Quetzalcoatl Restaurant, 296 Main Street.  The event is titled: “Huntington’s Rental Housing Shortage: Your Experiences … Possible Solutions.”  The program will engage young professionals in a conversation around the difficulties they are having obtaining affordable rental housing in Huntington as well as what can be done to increase the stock of this housing.  Appetizers and sangria will be provided. There is no charge. Please RSVP by September 25th to: janetstevenson3@gmail.com.  Here is the flier with details: YHTHC young professionals flyer

The widely acclaimed six hour HBO series that began Sunday, August 16th to run for three consecutive Sundays at 8PM, documents the ferocious political and legal battle in the late 1980s over a court order requiring the City of Yonkers to disperse low income and affordable housing from the segregated African American section of town to the all white, working class and middle class parts of Yonkers. This series is a must see for all people concerned about affordable housing because it documents the fears, hatred and pain on all sides of the issue.  Some of the scenes of angry anti-housing opponents storming the City Council meetings appear to be out of the South during the protests against Jim Crow 20 years earlier, yet they took place just a few miles from Huntington. Interestingly, there is a moment early on in the HBO show when the new mayor decides not to appeal the judge’s decision because his attorneys advised him  Yonkers would surely lose the case.  This may very well have been due to the 1988 decision by the US Supreme Court ordering Huntington to stop placing all its low  income and affordable housing in Huntington Station. You can read a 1988 New York Times analysis of both the Huntington and Yonkers cases here. If you missed the first episode of this excellent HBO series, you can see it On Demand.

Last month, the HTHC Steering Committee agreed to provide testimony to the NYS Wage Board in support of $15 an hour minimum wage for fast-food workers. We fully understand that even $15 an hour is not enough to pay for the typical one bedroom ($1300+) or two-bedroom ($1700+) rental  in Huntington, but still much better than the current $8.75  NYS minimum wage.  After waiting five hours to speak at the June 18th Nassau Community College Wage Board hearing, Joan Penrose Borum presented our testimony, which we posted on our website on July 7th.  Yesterday, the Wage Board announced that it unanimously supports the $15 wage hike, phased in over several years, which Governor Cuomo will surely implement in the coming weeks.  Our hope is that this action will prompt the State Senate to support a hike in the minimum wage for all New Yorkers. You can read about the Wage Board’s decision in the July 23rd lead story of the New York Times here:$15 an hour

On July 12th, The New York Times editorialized that the new HUD regulations are a major step toward closing loopholes used by local municipalities to avoid compliance with the federal Fair Housing Act.  We are hopeful that progress can finally be made toward creating ore racially, ethnically and income diverse communities in Huntington.  Many studies have shown that diversity benefits the entire community – especially children, regardless of their social class or race. You can read the editorial here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/opinion/the-end-of-federally-financed-ghettos.html  

The US Department of Housing and Urban Affairs (HUD) announced on July 8th  that it is establishing tighter reporting regulations which will mandate that local governments  overcome barriers to integrated, diverse  and affordable housing. The new regulations will require more detailed information on how the local government is addressing impediments to fair housing, as well as greater transparency in the public’s ability to access this data and, finally, a greater willingness on the part of HUD to withhold federal funds such as the Community Development Block Grants (CCBG) when local governments fail to meet the new requirements.  Under current HUD regulations, local governments must file a detailed CCBG report every five years to receive funding, with details on what plans are in place to create affordable housing and overcome the impediments to fair housing identified by the local government in its HUD report.  HTHC filed a statement with the Town of Huntington in October 2014, as part of the five-year HUD/CCBG reporting requirement, in which we detailed how the Town of Huntington has fallen far short on its plans for creating affordable housing. You can read our report below on this News and Events page as it was posted on October 23, 2014.  Unfortunately, these five year CCBG reports to HUD have had minimal if any  impact over the years, with little of no substantive follow-through by HUD to insure that local government’s adhere to their own CCBG plans.  Rarely if ever are CCBG funds withheld by HUD. While the new regulations are a sign of hope that Huntington will actually be required to fulfill its fair housing obligations, due to the often ferocious local opposition to compliance as we saw at Ruland Road, HTHC remains watchful on this issue.  You can read Newsday‘s  July 9th coverage of the new regulations.

Mike DeLouise, long-time President of the Melville Chamber of Commerce and a frequent partner with Huntington Township Housing Coalition, bid a hauntingly beautiful farewell to LI in a June edition of the Long Island Business News.  Mike is retiring off the Island.  His farewell, however, contains an urgent warning that if LI does not provide more affordable housing options, our future is in peril.  His warning needs to be taken seriously, very seriously.  Read the entire piece at this website