Nonprofit exec wants affordable housing summit

David Okorn, the new executive director of the Syosset-based Long Island Community Foundation, which makes grants to nonprofits, has heard an earful about the struggle here to build affordable housing. So he has applied for a grant from the Ford Foundation to hire a staff member just to work on the issue.

Okorn also wants to round up everyone involved and get them all talking about how affordable housing could be achieved.

"We want to take the lead," Okorn said. "It's been one of the issues that has been talked about on Long Island for probably the last decade or more. We keep seeing projects that look good but keep failing," he said, citing the recently defeated AvalonBay proposal in Huntington Station.

"Somebody has to organize many of these players. We need to bring all these parties together."