In November 2020, when the pandemic showed no signs of ending anytime soon, Brenda España and her son had to spend a night in a car after they were evicted from the house they were living in in Riverhead.
España said that the house had an apartment — which the owner of the house rented to other people — and she was forced to pay for water and electricity for both the house and the apartment, which was not her responsibility. Unable to work due to the pandemic, and with no way to pay the electricity bill that cost $1,200 a month, España asked the owner of the house for help, explaining the precarious situation in which she and her family found themselves. she. The homeowner, España said, did not help them and proceeded to put the house up for sale, threatening to call the police if she did not leave the house soon.
España lived under the protection of her sister from November 2020 to March 2021, when, after much searching, she found a house in Hampton Bays, where she currently lives, paying rent of $5,500 a month. And although España thought she had found a stable place to live, history is repeating itself. The owner of the house that she rents now wants her to vacate the house in March. Once again, she was told that if she did not leave the house, they would call the police, which has caused her tremendous distress, she said.
“We can't find anywhere to go,” she vented.
Guatemalan-born España is one of many affected by the housing crisis on Long Island's East End, an escalating problem that has plagued the region for more than two decades and has only worsened since the pandemic.
However, following the passage of the Peconic Bay Region Community Housing Act in November 2022, the municipalities of East Hampton, Southold, Southampton and Shelter Island have begun implementing a series of steps to achieve affordable housing for residents of the East End of Long Island. Riverhead opted out of this plan.
With the Peconic Bay Region Community Housing Act, an additional 0.5% will be added to the existing transfer tax, which is now 2% in those municipalities. The objective is to create an economic fund that serves as a "tool" for each municipality to develop a map to follow in order to use it in the best possible way.
“I think we can estimate that $20 million to $25 million a year can be generated in municipalities that have adopted the fund,” said New York state Assemblyman Fred Thiele, who sponsored the bill.
Thiele also emphasized that it is important to solve the housing crisis because it is related to other problems in the East End, such as heavy traffic, especially in the summer season, since there are more people working than living in the area, in addition to the lack of staff in restaurants, which means that they can only open for dinner service.
“Almost all of the problems facing Long Island's East End, in one way or another, come down to [lack of] affordable housing,” Thiele said.
Peter Van Scoyoc, East Hampton Township Supervisor, explained that the housing crisis affects not only people with low incomes, but everyone who depends on the local economy, such as workers at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, who have been he said there is a critical housing shortage even for doctors who come to work at the hospital.
“I see housing as the most difficult challenge we have for our community and it affects all aspects of the community,” Van Scoyoc said.
Van Scoyoc also said that despite the progress made in East Hampton over the past three decades, the lack of funding sources has been a stumbling block for the municipality. The new law is expected to help on this front.
“We believe this will generate a significant amount of funding that will further help us with our efforts to create more affordable housing,” he stressed.
According to Van Scoyoc, the next step for the municipality of East Hampton is the creation of a community committee to manage the fund, which will be in charge of establishing the policies that will determine how the economic fund is spent, in addition to examining specific projects and advising the City Council.
The committee must have no fewer than seven people and no more than 15. All must be legal residents of the municipality. In addition, the committee is required by law to have at least one person from the banking, real estate and construction industries and three people who are community housing advocates or from nonprofit organizations.
“We are looking for a very diverse group of people to represent the committee,” Van Scoyoc emphasized.
In Southold, a housing plan is being created by the local committee based on a survey of township residents about housing needs in the local community. The plan must be presented to the municipal council at the end of March and, after being approved, it will be presented to the community. Once the community has given its opinion, the plan will go back to the municipal council, which will make any necessary adjustments. The process should be complete by June.
Borough Supervisor Scott Russell explained that this plan will be comprehensive in nature and that the next steps will be taken based on that map.
“It will probably include every option under the sun that is viable for the City of Southold,” Russell said.
Russell's goal is to serve all the needs of the community and obtain as many homes as possible. He said that the median age of residents is growing very rapidly, implying that young people are not staying in the region.
“I would like to see the median age come down if we do something that will keep people here,” he explained.
Russell said it's important to keep those young people who will work in businesses, join fire departments and contribute in many ways.
Like the other East End boroughs, Southampton is also looking at how best to use this new tool. Borough Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said they are considering lowering some of the requirements to be able to build attached apartments on the lot of a single-family home, to encourage more to be built.
“[You have to have] at least half an acre to have an attached apartment, so we think we're going to consider maybe reducing that,” Schneiderman explained.
Schneiderman also wants to help identify properties that are good candidates for annex apartments and help with the processing of permits and funds to build.
Southampton is facing a housing crisis much the same as East Hampton and Southold. According to Schneiderman, all the properties east of the Shinnecock Canal are sky-high, and the properties to the west are a bit cheaper, but still out of the range of wages for local workers.
“The average price of a house is worth ten times the average salary,” he said.
Despite acknowledging that the new fund will be of great help and taking the next steps to solve the crisis, Schneiderman is aware that the problem in the region is far from being solved.
“For me it is clearly a crisis at the moment, but it is not easy to solve.”
España is hopeful for the future and wishes one day to be able to buy a house. She emphasized that she cries out to God a lot and that all she wants is peace of mind.
“We come to this country because the situation in our countries is very difficult, we have not come to harm anyone,” España said. "I just want to be calm."
