Suffolk County approved nearly $3 million in infrastructure funding this week to help build an affordable housing development that was in limbo for 40 years. The delay was in part due to racial discrimination.
The $66 million multifamily housing development was proposed in 1978 in a predominantly white area of Huntington. It faced decades of opposition.
Elaine Gross, executive director of the civil rights advocacy nonprofit ERASE Racism, says these problems take a long time to solve because of how embedded systemic racism is on Long Island.
“It’s not like you can make the decision once, and now we’ve solved the issue. Town by town, village by village, we’re going to have to fight for the discontinuation of racial segregation and housing.”
Gross says removing delays in the fight against housing discrimination will need intervention from state lawmakers.
The Huntington housing development will break ground next year.
