Workforce Housing Initiatives Are Topic of Latest Express Sessions Panel Discussion

There is a standing line that each and every Express Sessions panel discussion, no matter what the topic, ends up being about the need for more affordable housing on the South Fork.

This past week’s discussion, “Affordable Housing for Essential Volunteers and Professionals on Public Land,” which took place at the American Hotel in Sag Harbor on Thursday, October 12, cut to the chase and focused on two local proposals for workforce housing.

One, offered by Sag Harbor Mayor Tom Gardella, would create an estimated 12 apartments as part of a major project that would include the construction of a new emergency services building to replace the firehouse and ambulance barn on Brick Kiln Road and move the village’s Department of Public Works and maintenance garage, which currently share that site, to village-owned property in the Long Pond Greenbelt about two miles south of the village. The goal would be to target the apartments that would be built as part of that project for emergency services volunteers and village employees.

A second proposal, aired by Hampton Life magazine publisher Kirby Marcantonio, would create up to 20 apartments on an acre of land on Cedar Street owned by the East Hampton School District behind East Hampton High School. The units would be provided for teachers and district employees, or possibly employees of local businesses.

Besides Gardella and Marcantonio, the panelists included Southampton Town Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni; Curtis Highsmith, the executive director of the Southampton Town Housing Authority; and Tim Fromm, the assistant superintendent of the East Hampton School District. The event was moderated by The Express News Group’s managing editor, Bill Sutton.

“The gears are turning — it takes time,” said Gardella of his proposal for the village. He said village officials had spoken to Southampton Town officials about possibly using money from the newly created Community Housing Fund to buy some of the village-owned property near the greenbelt to help fund the project. Gardella said he had also met with Governor Kathy Hochul during her recent visit to the East End and that she had pledged her support.

“Obviously, Sag Harbor is small, 2.2 square miles, in a huge state,” Gardella said. “But the fact that we got support and encouragement from her, I think, is very important.”

Perhaps just as importantly, Schiavoni said the project could count on town support as well.

“Sag Harbor is important and having affordable housing in Sag Harbor is significant as well,” he said. “And affordable housing for first responders, the topic for why we’re here today, is also critical. Our first responders, ambulance and fire, very often they’re the heart of the community.”

But Sutton asked whether federal fair housing laws might require the village to expand the lottery process beyond the targeted pool.

Highsmith gave a long answer to that question, which boiled down to a “yes.”

“Someone who’s creating housing, whether it’s public or private, if they create a selection process that in any way doesn’t create diversity, infringes upon a protected class, creates segregation in any manner or in any way, may be in violation of fair housing,” he said. “The creation, if we’re doing it alone, doesn’t create the fair housing violation. Someone has to bring a claim.”

Marcantonio, who worked with his father in the real estate business before becoming publisher of Hampton Life magazine, said he felt compelled to try to help alleviate the housing crisis after the COVID-19 pandemic poured gasoline on an already red-hot real estate market.

Knowing that essential organizations such as hospitals, towns, school districts, as well as many businesses, were having trouble finding housing for their employees, Marcantonio said he decided to focus on that problem by seeking to either work with private landowners, the town, or the school district.

Under his approach, the goal would be to not take public funding for the developments. That way, they could avoid the requirement that they be offered to out-of-town tenants, but limited to people working in the town.

Speaking for the school district, Fromm said it has had to become creative in hiring staff because the housing shortage is so dire. “We’re constantly thinking about what’s going to happen with the next opening, how we are going to do that,” he said.

But as to whether the school district would ever be able to work with Marcantonio, Fromm said many questions remained to be answered.

“I wouldn’t say we’re at an impasse,” Fromm said, “but I think that one of the biggest issues with any affordable housing or workforce housing is going to start with access to land. There’s limited land on the entire East End, let alone at the schools. It would be very difficult for us to move forward with a partnership project without having a lot outlined in advance. Such as who’s going to own the property, who’s not going to own the property, who’s going to build it, who’s going to pay for it, [who will live] in those houses when we get into the business of being landlords?”

Fromm added that it would be problematic for the school district to allow other businesses or organizations to rent some of the units if it could not fill them all. “I don’t think we would probably enter into a partnership with other organizations if we were to have anything there,” he said, “but just managing it unto itself is a lot.”

Marcantonio interjected that an arrangement could be made to allow his company to manage the construction and maintenance of the complex and place a manager at the site, although he conceded the school district might prefer to exercise total control over any project on its grounds.

Audience member William Gangi said he saw a problem with renting to emergency services volunteers or essential workers. “What happens if they leave?” he asked.

Marcantonio conceded the question had merit. “When you have somebody who devotes a portion of their time to something, a volunteer fireman or an EMT person, if they cease doing that, what do you do about the housing that you’ve given them? Do you ask them to leave? Do you take it away from them?”

He added it would be easier if a business owned the property because if an employee left his or her job, the unit could be passed on to a replacement.

“That works for rental units,” added Highsmith, but he said in the case of homeownership, the town typically adds a covenant requiring the owner to split any capital gains from a sale so the property remains in the affordable housing stock.

Kara Bak, the director of housing, community development and community services for Southampton Town, said with money beginning to accrue in the Community Housing Fund, the town had some new solutions in mind. One, she said, would pay subsidies to volunteers and essential workers to help cover the cost of their mortgages for as long as they remained active. “If they stop, then we stop making the payment,” she said, adding that the goal was to encourage volunteers and workers to continue in their roles.

Gardella said the discussion offered much food for thought. “I hear a lot of different ideas being tossed about here,” he said. “I think the village is going to have to come up with something that works for us that’s going to support the community.”

Gardella compared the village to a plant. “We’ve got this beautiful flower that’s flourishing, but what’s going on at the roots? What’s going on at the base?” he asked. “Are our volunteers, the people that participate in the community, are they staying here or are they taking off?”

He added if there were concerns that his housing proposal could run afoul of fair housing laws, then the village should look at its own practices. “I think that maybe we need to look at our own firehouse and our ambulance corps to see how we can reach out to include more people from the community to get them to volunteer, to get them to participate,” he said. “And that’s something that we’re going to have to be proactive in.”