The East End still needs more housing that is affordable

You might think mindless NIMBYism would be declining in the face of the well-documented housing shortage crisis. Young people have become refugees from Long Island’s East End — not because they want to, but because they must find a community that has places they can afford to live. Many schools are seeing a reduction in students. East End businesses are starving for staff and finding it harder to maintain profitability without raising prices, resulting in more inflation. East End food pantries are still busy because after paying rent, gas, heating, and other necessities, there’s not enough left over for food.

Interest rates are up more than 100% since 2019, home prices have risen 30-to-50%, and year-round rental prices spiked as much as 200%. Local residents make up most of our human infrastructure jobs on the East End: teachers, firefighters, EMTs, hospital and health care workers, town and village employees, farmers, fishers, artists, and those who work in the tourism industry.

Those who have been priced out and want to keep their jobs here have created a trade parade, bringing traffic that clogs our major east/west arteries from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. While $5-million, 5,000-square-foot homes continue to pop up like daisies, workforce apartments remain illegal to build. We know how to create sustainable, environmentally sound, attractive multifamily properties, from duplexes and fourplexes to 16 and 32-apartment developments.

Now that the Community Housing Fund, passed by referendum in November 2022, is starting to collect funds in Southold, Shelter Island, East Hampton, and Southampton towns, advisory boards and town boards are searching for effective ways to use the money. But the stubborn issue of restrictive, single-family-only zoning and a loud and vocal minority of opponents continue to be obstacles to many of the best solutions.

As I’ve heard at local meetings for years, local developers and business people are eager to create workforce housing to attract and maintain staff, but the time and money required to overcome the zoning blockade are simply too great. So development is the province of deeper-pocketed developers.

Consider Concern Housing's Liberty Gardens on County Road 39 in Southampton, now six years into the permitting process for a proposed workforce and veteran-supportive housing development. One of the most highly respected affordable and supportive housing nonprofits in New York has incurred expenses of over $2 million, hardly a price tag a local developer could afford. The proposal has been reduced from 60 to 50 apartments, environmental review is complete, and still opponents are on fire. Things that have been said at public meetings are astounding. The false narrative, race and class-baiting, fearmongering, and lies are shocking.

In 1988, Congress passed the Fair Housing Amendments Act to prohibit discriminatory housing practices based on disability and familial status.

Economically, morally, ethically, and legally, how can anyone not support these apartments? This “east of the canal” development is within walking distance of local businesses and public transportation and likely will reduce traffic because workers will now live closer to their jobs and not be part of the trade parade.

Officials in villages, towns, counties, and many states are figuring out that the loud and vocal minority is just that. Studies on Long Island and nationwide consistently show that 60-75% of community members see the need for more housing and support zoning changes to accomplish that. Most Southampton Town residents are counting on our town board to recognize that, too, so Concern Housing can move forward with the construction of Liberty Gardens.

This guest essay reflects the views of Michael Daly, founder of East End YIMBY.