HUNTINGTON – NOV. 19, 2025 – At a public hearing on November 14, Roger Weaving, vice-president of the Huntington Township Housing Coalition, called upon Suffolk County policymakers to accelerate their efforts to remove obstacles to the development of affordable housing.
The Huntington Township Housing Coalition is a nonprofit, advocacy organization that encourages the development of affordable housing in the Town of Huntington.
Mr. Weaving appeared before the Welfare to Work Commission of the Suffolk County Legislature.
While “many obstacles make building affordable housing on Long Island so difficult,” he highlighted the costs and delays arising from zoning regulations.
“Zoning rules limit the creation of affordable housing,” Mr. Weaving said, “by requiring developers to seek variances on both new projects and changes to existing buildings.”
This cumbersome process “requires more hearings, which means the builder has to hire more lawyers and experts.” Slow-moving approvals continually engender delays that “increase costs, as the cost of materials increase each year.”
Mr. Weaving also said that additional “environmental reviews, architectural reviews, and management of community expectations all take their toll in time.”
He noted that the protracted, time-consuming approval process can also threaten a developer’s financing. Because project financing “isn’t committed forever,” delays can cause it to expire.
Mr. Weaving also told the Commission that “the biggest impediment in Suffolk County is the lack of sewers.”
He said that the Town of Huntington has “recently been fortunate enough to make progress on some of these issues.” He singled out the recent adoption of a Melville Town Center overlay zone, “which will reduce the number of steps to build apartments in Melville.”
Mr. Weaving also praised the imminent opening of Matinecock Court “after more than 40 years of delays.” The complex is a 146-unit, limited-equity cooperative housing development in East Northport.
He closed by urging Commission members to keep pursuing ways to make the public more accepting of the need for affordable housing in Suffolk County.
The Commission noted that “about half of Long Islanders are living in unaffordable homes, meaning they are paying more than 30 percent of their incomes for housing costs – rent or mortgage. It also stated that “this crisis in affordability is particularly harsh on low- and moderate- income families.”
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