Community Housing Board forum spurs positive steps on affordables

Based on suggestions at the March Community Housing Board CHB forum and communications to committee members since then, there’s now program in place to bring reasonably priced housing to the Island.

The group agreed Monday night to ask the Town Board about increasing membership from five to seven in order to add younger members and spread the work load.

“It can’t just be us,” said Councilwoman Chris Lewis, who is the Town Board’s liaison to the CHB.

Besides increasing their numbers, the CHB agreed it wants to:
• Examine the town’s subdivision laws to discover what must change if new structures are to be built for workforce housing
• Develop a conceptual design for a project that could be replicated to meet immediate as well as future needs
• Communicate with the Long Island Housing Partnership about taking a role in managing community housing since the town doesn’t want to function as landlord or manager
• Explore ways to provide incentives to owners of existing properties who might have space to accommodate renters
• Meet with representatives of Bridgehampton National Bank to explore ways to finance construction of rental properties.

Board member Mike Bebon said he has a friend who is an architect on Long Island and anticipates he may be able to get some ideas to help develop a conceptual design for a project.

Co-Chairman Hoot Sherman said his son, Matt Sherman, of Sherman Engineering & Consulting, might advise about water and septic system requirements, critical to any new development.

Another idea that surfaced Monday night came from Ms. Lewis who suggested the board try to entice some of those looking for housing to agree to be featured in advertising.

Some Islanders have a vision that affordable apartments will bring “unsavory people” to Shelter Island. Putting a face on the issue by featuring those who already live here in inadequate space,  or who work here but can’t find housing on the Island, would help the public to understand the problem, Ms. Lewis said.

Since last month’s forum, five new applications have been filed seeking affordable rentals, Co-chairwoman Mary Faith Westervelt said. She noted that is proof there is a need that the Town Board shouldn’t ignore. Ms. Westervelt said she anticipated more people would file applications.

A recent meeting Ms. Westervelt had with the Shelter Island Association (SIA) provides hope, she said, that the CHB might have an ally in fighting against past situations where neighbors rallied with letters and petitions to beat back attempts at affordable housing.

“They fought us tooth and nail” in the past, Mr. Sherman said about groups of neighbors who were against projects even before they could get off the ground.

The CHB is hoping more homeowners with space to accommodate a rental might step forward and wants to explore incentives encouraging more homeowners to do so. While the town’s zoning code prohibits kitchens in garage apartments, the CHB can wave that provision as long as the property meets other standards, Ms. Westervelt said.

“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” board member Bruce Saul said. At the same time, he warned that the wider community needs to look at the alternative if the town does nothing to create affordable housing.

That cost would be an Island with no school, professional firefighters and EMTS and an end to the mixed community of people representing all ages and backgrounds.

Another approach came from former CHB member Lance Willumsen who suggested efforts to create affordable housing purchases rather than rentals. Given the cost of a two-bedroom rental under Department of Housing and Urban Development standards that is $1,608 per month in Suffolk County, that money would be better spent by people able to have equity and tax benefits, Mr. Willumsen said.

Fishers Island, for example, have areas using the “community land trust” concept to develop housing for workers who couldn’t otherwise afford to live in that part of Southold.

Typically, such housing is managed by people who qualify to live within the land trust as well as representatives of the wider community.

While homeowners are able to build equity in their houses, when they opt to leave the community, they are bound by agreement to sell their houses back to the land trust so they can remain perpetually affordable.