Peter Florey, developer of a rental housing development proposed for Melville, speaks to supporters of the project outside Town Hall in Huntington. (Dec. 3, 2013) Credit: Newsday / John Paraskevas
A recent letter writer argues that there's an "abundance of rentals" in the Town of Huntington ["Do we need more rental housing?" Dec. 16.]
One piece of her evidence is the number of illegal accessory apartments. The Huntington Township Housing Coalition wants to see fewer illegal accessory apartments. These underground and illegal apartmentsare a symptom of the lack of affordable rental housing in town.
As the Huntington Town consolidated plan reports, Huntington's 15 percent-85 percent split of rental versus home ownership is much more pronounced than the 33 percent-67 percent split for the United States as a whole. Huntington falls short of providing a balance or range of housing choices.
Nearby Westchester has a 30 percent-70 percent rental-ownership split. Rents in Westchester are 11 percent cheaper than in Suffolk because of the larger supply.
Richard Koubek, Dix Hills
Editor's note: The writer is the president of the Huntington Township Housing Coalition, an advocacy group.
