Long Islanders support single-family affordable housing but are split on apartments, new poll shows

With Long Island home prices at record highs, a new poll shows most locals would like to see their county officials do more to encourage development of affordable single-family homes.

But respondents were split on whether counties should do more to create affordable apartments, according to a Newsday/Siena poll of 411 likely Long Island voters.

Of survey respondents, 63% said their county officials should do more to encourage building single-family affordable housing, while 13% said county officials should do less. Of the remainder, 16% said their county government is doing what it should and 8% said they didn’t know or refused to answer the question.

“There’s widespread bipartisan support for county governments doing more on the development of single-family housing,” said Don Levy, director of the Siena Research Institute at Siena University.

Affordability has become a leading concern for voters, Newsday has reported, and housing often takes up the largest portion of a household’s monthly budget. 

Support for affordable houses comes as the median sale price for a single-family home rose to an all-time high $911,000 in Nassau County in August, and a record $760,000 in Suffolk County, according to the latest data from OneKey MLS.

On the question of counties supporting affordable multifamily housing, there was no majority for any one position.

Long Islanders said counties should do more rather than less to encourage building affordable apartments by a 42% to 32% margin, while 16% said their county is doing the right amount.

Those margins were similar in Nassau (42% to 30%) and Suffolk (43% to 33%), with a greater share of Nassau respondents saying the county is doing the right amount.

The issue divided participants along party lines. Among Democrats, 65% said they believe their county should do more to support affordable apartments. Republicans favored counties doing less rather than more by a margin of 48% to 23%, while 21% said counties are doing the right amount.

“The typical partisan divide keeps overall support breakeven at best for the development of additional affordable multifamily [housing],” Levy said.

Republican leaders in Suffolk County have taken different approaches to the issue, with County Executive Edward P. Romaine expressing support for several new apartment complexes, while Presiding Officer Anthony Piccirillo (R-Holtsville) has opposed denser development and rental housing, Newsday has reported.

Affordable single-family housing had wide support in the poll, especially among respondents ages 18 to 34, with 87% saying they want counties to do more.

“A screaming need is being expressed by young people for single-family housing,” Levy said.

Young people, non-white respondents and people earning less than $100,000 a year also expressed wider support for affordable apartments than Long Island as a whole. People who said they were conservative expressed greater opposition. 

Kaitlynn Donohue, 21, of Suffolk County, said county officials could do more to support affordable housing options, including both homes and apartments. 

Donohue, who lives with family, said she’d be interested to rent a house but hasn’t found any affordable options.

“I’d like to live with friends but the houses are very expensive, and at that point, renting would require too many people," she said.

The average asking rent on Long Island among all apartment types was $3,080, according to CoStar, which tracks market-rate buildings with five units or more and excludes affordable and senior housing. 

Elizabeth Paradise, 65, of Bellmore, said she opposes additional housing development because it has led to congestion and unbearable traffic on the South Shore.

“It’s overcrowded," she said. "You cannot go down Bellmore Avenue or Sunrise Highway without being in bumper-to-bumper traffic.”

Paradise said she had reconsidered her position on single-family housing since responding to the survey. Her 30-year-old son rents in Seaford and she would like him to be able to buy a home but she believes new apartments create too great a strain on fire, police and sanitation resources.

“I want him to own his own house," she said. "It’s nearly impossible because of the prices, and I do get that."

Erick Molina, 36, of Kings Park, said incomes haven’t kept up with the cost of housing. Molina, who rents a house with his parents and sister, said housing feels unattainable on an hourly wage, especially as other costs for gasoline and heating oil are rising.

“They should do more for apartments, not just for houses, but also for people who cannot afford houses yet,” he said.

The poll was conducted Sept. 11-17 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.7 percentage points.