With the price of housing on the South Fork exorbitant and affordable places to live sadly lacking, two grassroots organizations, Solidarity Sundays and East End Yimby, have joined together to take action.
Solidarity Sundays comprises a group of parents who have met monthly since Donald Trump's election in 2016 to confront these and similar social issues with letter-writing campaigns, phone calls, and sign-making for rallies and marches. East End YIMBY ("Yes in my backyard") has been sounding the alarm on housing for years -- an alarm that seems to often go unheard, they say -- and pushing back hard against the increasing Nimbyism heard in public discourse.
"We probably have been Nimbys about something in our lives -- dispensaries, liquor stores, anything that we perceive as being a danger to either ourselves, our family, our property values, the community, or our neighbors," said Michael Daly, a real estate agent who created East End YIMBY. "In order to walk our talk as a Yimby, we have to be able to say 'yes' to community housing, affordable housing, anywhere it goes, even if that's right next to us. Look at yourselves and decide."
At the two groups' first joint meeting, on July 25, they agreed that the time for merely commiserating has passed. Their first order of business: busting the myths surrounding municipally managed and public-private housing partnerships, fears of which include more traffic, more crime, poor construction, negative environmental impact, higher taxes, and lower property values for neighbors.
"Density is a four-letter word to this kind of community and to a rural and environmental-focused community," Mr. Daly said. "Density is not bad -- villages and towns thrive."
Katie Hammond, a social worker who practices in East Hampton, suggested that "we need to step back from housing being a for-profit industry."
"I understand why people use real estate as an investment, that selling a home can transform someone's life, provide for their family, or is their retirement plan, and yet it is leaving those of us with moderate to low incomes with nowhere to live," she said. "If you are in the service, historic, or caring professions out here, your path to housing security and home ownership is nonexistent. . . . It's better for the community when our social workers, teachers, police officers, nurses, doctors, firefighters, farmers, occupational therapists, home health aides, et cetera, live in the community."
All those present agreed to begin writing letters to elected officials. Amity Lucas, an employment recruiter, offered to rally support among business owners who want local housing for their employees. Jake Phipps, who works in the building industry, said he would investigate the feasibility of installing modular and microhousing units like "tiny houses" in areas where 99-year land leases can be secured. Ms. Hammond volunteered to gather personal accounts from people who are in dire need of housing. Others said they would find out whether vacant dormitory rooms on the Stony Brook Southampton college campus could be retrofitted as housing, and would try to find feasible ways to modify accessory apartment laws, which often prevent homeowners with large properties from adding apartments.
Katy Casey, executive director of the East Hampton Housing Authority, lauded the two groups' efforts to dispel misconceptions. "I think that is an excellent idea," she said by phone this week. "When a third party is championing your cause, it's got more weight."
She believes "the tide is changing" when it comes to public perception of housing. "There's always going to be some opposition, but the gap between incomes and real estate prices, both to own and rent, is widening. It's getting worse," she said. "Even people who were comfortable 10 years ago are nervous -- 'Can I afford to live here? Can my children afford to live here?' "
Mr. Daly, the real estate agent, described a dilemma: People who most need affordable housing are too busy working to come to town board meetings and advocate for it, while people who oppose it often have the time to go out and voice their opinions.
Kara Bak, Southampton Town's director of housing and community services, and Tom Ruhle, her counterpart in East Hampton, did not attend the July 25 meeting but agreed with its findings.
"Although some people are afraid that affordable housing may cause more traffic, the increasingly horrendous traffic issues are a big reason why we need more affordable housing here in the town," Ms. Bak said in an email. "Many of the people who are working in our town would love to live here but they just cannot afford to, so they end up commuting to work, which causes the traffic."
"Back in the early 2000s, when we were working on the new comprehensive plan, we said, if you do not build sufficient affordable housing, traffic will get worse, employers will be unable to find employees, and the emergency services will run out of volunteers," Mr. Ruhle told The Star. "So, here we are."
Mr. Ruhle is pushing for the passage of a community housing-transfer tax of .5 percent from certain real estate sales, initially proposed by State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., which passed in the Assembly and State Senate but was vetoed in 2019 by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. The new tax would fund housing programs in the same way that the community preservation fund provides money for open space preservation, historic preservation, water quality improvements, and other uses.
Voters would have to approve the community-housing tax before it could become law. "That ballot will be a moral referendum for the voters of East Hampton," Mr. Ruhle said. "Do we all really support affordable housing, or do we pretend just enough to not appear xenophobic exclusionists? Are we able to overcome our inherent greed to do the right thing?"
Mr. Thiele said last week that the bill has been reintroduced and again passed by both branches of the Legislature, and that he has discussed it further with the governor's representatives.
"People need housing, and the local economy depends on it," he said. "The pandemic has had a lot of negative impacts, and one is that it has made the need for this bill even more pressing than it was in 2019. We're hopeful that the governor will look favorably on the bill."
