In Search of Affordable Housing

In search of affordable housing
Rick Brand
September 9, 2007
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Nearly 200 scientists young and old jammed Hamilton Hall at Brookhaven National Laboratory Friday to hear Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy talk up his proposal for 1,000 units of affordable housing in Yaphank.The younger scientists, seeking housing for themselves, and the older ones, intently interested for their own adult children, peppered the county executive for nearly two hours with questions about when the new units might be ready and how they might qualify. Levy, in turn, urged them to show up at civic and zoning meetings to back the controversial project, whose timetable is uncertain."There's been a sea change in attitude with regard to next-generation housing," Levy said later. "In the past it was thought to be housing that would flood the Island. Now it's about getting the grown kids out of the basement apartment when they come back from college and protecting our companies who have been experiencing a brain drain."
But hamstrung without power over local zoning and by a long-stalled state inclusionary zoning proposal that would mandate communities do their share of affordable housing, Levy and suburban officials ringing New York City are for the first time coming together to take the issue to the next level.Seven counties - Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess and Putnam - have been meeting behind the scenes with the Regional Plan Association to hammer out principles to create a new voluntary program based on incentives rather than mandates. Top officials are expected to unveil a specific legislative initiative by month's end and hope for early action in Albany next year."There hasn't been anything as comprehensive and far-reaching as this since the advent of the suburbs with Levittown," Levy said. "This has tremendous potential if enough communities get on board with a volunteer program based on incentives rather than riding roughshod over home rule."Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi is also on board."There's an urgency all the counties are feeling to get something done," said Bruce Nyman, a spokesman for Suozzi. "We're responding to real need and for the first time all the counties are rolling up their sleeves together."Like the inclusionary zoning initiative, the new proposal calls on the county government to develop community-by-community goals for workforce housing units. But unlike the state plan put forward by former state Sen. Michael Balboni and former Assemb. Thomas DiNapoli, now top state officials, the new measure would be voluntary for towns and villages.But the program, through the Empire State Development agency and state Housing Finance Agency, would give incentives including state land; planning grants to identify sites; payments for each building permit given for workforce housing; and loans needed for new infrastructure. It would also indemnify school districts from the extra cost of new students."Having a bunch of carrots is exactly the right prescription," said Michael White, executive director of the Long Island Regional Planning Board, adding mandates could be a backup if cooperative efforts fail."This could be very significant," agreed Christopher Jones, the board's vice president for research. "Levittown did not happen on its own. There were major state and federal policy decisions, like mortgage deductibility and the interstate highway act, that helped the postwar suburbs to grow."Even Republican State Senate officials, who have balked at housing mandates, appear more amenable."It's very encouraging for the counties to be advocating incentives rather than mandates," said Thomas Dunham, spokesman for state Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), deputy majority leader, adding the proposal might dovetail with the Senate's own $25-million affordable housing initiative. "On its face, it appears to be a creative idea and we're more than happy to look at it."
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