Town, Housing Committee to work on memo draft for affordable housing

On the road to developing 10 units of affordable housing on Shelter Island, a subcommittee plans to meet Thursday, Aug. 21. The aim is to begin drafting a Memorandum of Understanding to be submitted to the Community Development Long Island (CDLI) for its consideration.

A Memorandum of Understanding is not a binding contract between the two, but a document that explains the roles and objectives of how the two sides would work together toward developing an official contract. But the Memorandum doesn’t create any legal obligations between the two sides.

CDLI and its contractor, Urban Builders, have demonstrated their abilities to handle construction and management of the units in their responses to the Request For Qualifications (RFQ), Community Housing Board Chairwoman Elizabeth Hanley said at the Aug. 14 meeting.

Original plans called for a public meeting between the five Town Board members and the seven CHB members and lawyers who have been advising both. Instead, two members of the Town Board — the liaisons to the CHB, Deputy Supervisor Meg Larsen and Councilman Benjamin Dyett — and three members of the CHB — Chairwoman Elizabeth Hanley and two other members — will meet in a closed session .

Attorney Mariam Milgrom, who assisted the CHB in developing its RFQ, and attorney Steven Leventhal, who functioned as interim Town attorney for the past eight months, will work the subcommittee. Although he completed his interim appointment, Mr. Leventhal indicated he would be available if needed and Ms. Larsen said the Town Board agreed with the request from the CHB for his services since he is familiar with the affordable housing issues. The group will create a draft of the Memorandum of Understanding to be submitted to CDLI outlining plans.

The hope is to eventually reach agreement for the CDLI and Town to move forward with a long-term 49-year contract. Toward that end, another exploration will get underway to deal with how to qualify those who will rent the units.

The Town’s aim has been to provide housing for people who grew up on the Island and would like to settle there, but can’t find affordable units; those who may be living in substandard housing but are unable to find rentals they can afford; or workers on the Island who can’t currently afford to live here.

CHB member Bran Dougherty-Johnson told his colleagues he learned that some communities in Florida have been able to restrict affordables to people who work in the tourist industry. It inspired him to explore further, to see if affordables on the Island might be restricted to volunteers to the Fire Department and/or the Emergency Medical Services, which depend on volunteers.

Typically, to comply with Fair Housing Legislation, affordables can’t be restricted to a particular group to avoid banning residents based on race, religion or similar reasons. But if some Florida communities can offer affordables to its tourist industry employees, he’s thinking Shelter Island might be able to set its needs on those willing to be Island volunteers serving without compensation in emergency services, or even members of Town committees appointed without compensation for the work they do. Further exploration is needed for that possibility, he said.

With respect to the upcoming negotiations with the CDLI, the organization was the sole bidder. But the Town has worked with the organization through the process of bringing Accessory Dwelling Units to the Island. A $2 million state grant provided up to $125,000 grants to property owners of 16 properties on the Island. Three are complete. Three more are in contract and most of the others are in the pipeline. The window to get the final few into the pipeline by September has been on fast forward for several weeks with meetings with property owners to help them with paper work. Ms. Hanley is optimistic the entire grant will be put to work.

She noted members of her committee will be at Saturday’s Green Expo to explain the ADU program and provide assistance to those interested in getting in just under the wire. She noted the Community Development Corporation of Long Island will be sending one of its members to the Green Expo to assist in recruiting the final grant recipients.

As the affordable housing and ADU rentals go forward, the CHB is also beginning to focus on what has become $1.2 million in committee coffers from a tax paid by new residents buying property on the Island. The hope is to be able to use that money to lay the ground work for future affordables. Among costs would be a professionally organized survey of the need for additional affordable housing. That’s something that was only available anecdotally for the first 10 units.

But it has also been suggested the money could be applied to what appears to be a $2 million shortfall in money needed to pay the expenses not covered by rentals by closing the gap for the current affordable units.