Money for Housing
A bill introduced recently in the New York State Legislature by Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. to deal with the enduring problem of too little available housing for the region’s work force has a worthy goal. However, it may not be quite ambitious enough. The housing crunch is acute and getting worse. There are just too few reasonably priced, safe rentals to go around. Workers often crowd into illegal group houses, which can have a negative effect on neighborhoods and in some areas cause septic contamination of groundwater, among other effects. People are forced to move away, not because jobs are scarce, but because there is nowhere for them to live, and it is only getting worse.
Several factors have contributed to the lack of starter or lower-end housing, including the conversion of second-floor apartments in commercial districts to office space and the rise of online services like Airbnb, which facilitate short-term rentals at high prices and deplete the availability of year-round residences.
Mr. Thiele’s bill would fund zero-interest loans with a maximum of $250,000 to help those who earn up to 120 percent of the median income, or about $130,000 today, to buy houses. It also would provide money to prod the towns to protect existing work force housing by buying easements and through other means. The fund would be created from a residential construction fee of $10 per square foot, exempting the first 3,000 square feet of floor area. The legislation, like the community preservation fund before it, was designed for the five East End towns and residents in each would have to authorize the creation of respective housing programs in a ballot referendum.
There may be wide support for the idea. In a report delivered to the East Hampton Town Board last year, an official committee recommended the expansion of existing efforts. This might include new zoning rules to allow multifamily residences, subject to income caps, as well as seasonal “dormitories” for some workers. Such changes are necessary, the committee said, because the incentive programs already in the town code have failed to work. Hundreds of names remain on waiting lists for housing, and few new units have been created in the private sector.
One concept floated by the committee is an additional real estate transfer tax, similar to the 2-percent preservation fund levy, to pay for affordable housing. This might be difficult to win support for on the ballot. Instead, an alternative could be reducing the C.P.F. tax by half a percent and creating a new, separate fund specifically dedicated to housing. Combined with Mr. Thiele’s luxury tax on larger house construction, the two sources of income could go a long way toward putting roofs over the regions’ workers’ heads. It is an idea worth a serious look given the seriousness of the crisis.