Long Island is really expensive. Here are more than a dozen ways to make it more affordable.
Thousands of Long Island families struggle to get by, figuring out each week how they will pay the rent or mortgage, buy food, cover health care costs, get clothes and put gas in the car. Credit: Johnny Milano
Overpriced housing. High taxes. Expensive child care. Food insecurity. Rising utility costs. And an infrastructure that makes it extremely difficult (even costly) to not own a vehicle to get around.
Long Island has become nearly unaffordable for large swaths of the middle class that “Levittowns” were supposed to service, not to mention those living under or close to the poverty line. Thousands of families struggle to get by, figuring out each week how they will pay the rent or mortgage, buy food, cover health care costs, get clothes and put gas in the car.
Newsday interviewed scores of experts and Long Island families to understand why the region is so expensive and what can be done to make it more affordable for our Feeling the Squeeze series. We've compiled all of those solutions — the ones available or in progress now and those that have been proposed — here, along with resources for Long Islanders dealing with these issues.
Explore them by topic and read the complete series.
United Way of Long Island’s 211 information and call center allows Long Islanders to reach a live person 24/7 who can assist them with referrals depending on their needs, 211longisland.org.
