Developers should work closely with the public

Listen to this article

The December passage of the Melville Town Center overlay zone by the Town of Huntington shows what can be accomplished when developers work closely with the public and local government. The overlay zone facilitates up to 1,500 residential units to be created, one-fifth of which would be affordable.

Over the course of many town hearings, we helped turn out crowds who favored more flexible zoning, which helped give the town board the confidence their constituents truly felt the need for apartments as choices in the town.

The Huntington Township Housing Coalition (HTHC)—an all-volunteer group of citizens and organizations that supports affordable housing in our township—will actively support development meeting the town’s rule that new developments offer at least 20 percent of their units at affordable rates.  Too often, though, we don’t hear about individual projects until shortly before they appear before the town, which doesn’t leave us much time to organize support.

Much of the HTHC’s work is long-term, including speaking to local organizations and government officials about the need for affordable housing.

Because housing costs have far outpaced wage growth over the last 20 years, we have witnessed a hollowing-out of our workforce as people seek jobs closer to where they can afford to live. Fortunately, in recent years, we have seen public sentiment start to turn in favor of housing options besides the single-family home.

I became involved in the affordable housing issue because the company I worked for could no longer attract graduates with technical degrees for salaries we could afford. Qualified candidates would look at local rental costs and decide to seek work in other states. For businesses competing against companies based in states like Texas or the Carolinas, the higher cost of living here makes it challenging to attract and retain a qualified workforce.

Even if local businesses are headquarters and hospitals with presumably higher salaries, they still employ many entry-level and support staff who cannot afford local rents without spending far more than 30 percent of their income, a level that puts people at risk of housing insecurity. Those who really need the help, though, are residents who are already here and who help our lives function every day.

There are hundreds of thousands of people living in Nassau and Suffolk in jobs with annual median wages below $45,000: retail sales jobs, non-managers working in restaurants, healthcare support aides, home health aides, teaching assistants, childcare workers, and others. State data lists 85 jobs with over 770,000 employees with a median wage below this level.  To not be housing insecure, these people would need to pay rents of $1,125 per month or less.

The reason you don’t hear from them at town hearings is that to afford median rents in Nassau or Suffolk, they would need two jobs, not leaving much time for advocacy. That’s where the HTHC and other housing advocates can help.

Developers know there is demand for apartments, affordable or otherwise. Units are always fully sold or rented once construction is complete. Often, renters are current owners of single-family homes who want to downsize without leaving the area. That frees up their homes—often older homes priced lower than newly constructed ones—to be purchased by new families looking to move out of apartments or their parents’ basements.

To expedite housing construction, developers must work closely with local groups and municipalities that support affordable housing to offset the NIMBY (“not in my backyard”) forces that are always present. Local governments are acutely sensitive to retaining control over their zoning, but to keep Albany at bay, they must show they are taking action to address the housing crisis—as Huntington just did in approving the Melville Town Center.

To succeed, housing developers on Long Island should learn a lesson from the Melville Town Center experience. They must build bridges with both local governments and community advocates.

Roger Weaving is president of the Huntington Township Housing Coalition.