Congratulations to our four East End towns on the passage of the Peconic Bay Community Housing Fund. This clearly presents an opportunity to change the model for how affordable community housing is created throughout our towns, hamlets and villages in an equitable way.
The fund is projected to collect approximately $600 million between 2023 and 2050. With that comes great responsibility to use the funds in ways that will best benefit our greater communities and community members, while protecting our environment, natural beauty and seaside character.
Today, there is great need and demand for affordable and secure homes throughout the East End. We will be challenged to quickly solve a crisis that has evolved over many years. That demand may significantly exceed what the towns can create using the Community Housing Fund for the foreseeable future. Our human infrastructure is likely to continue to erode while conducting the necessary research and implementing the housing plans.
Existing, planned and additional affordable housing development, in Quiogue, Southampton, Sag Harbor, East Hampton, Riverhead and Greenport, will continue until the towns develop comprehensive plans on the quantifiable needs, establish highly considered priorities, and develop effective strategies to fund smaller-scale solutions for affordable community housing for teachers, first responders, health care workers, seniors and young people who have grown up here.
Each town will form a Community Housing Fund Advisory Committee to evaluate requests for Community Housing Fund revenues and make recommendations to the town boards on which requests to grant funds to. These committees should be made up of socially, economically and culturally diverse, full-time, year-round residents who understand and can speak to the needs of local residents.
Coordination with major stakeholders, including business groups, civic groups, the health care community, environmental groups, volunteer first responders, public safety, and representatives from our heritage industries of fishing, farming, tourism and the arts will be required to gain the support needed to address our community needs.
We’re grateful to be beginning the journey on this new path for our beloved East End that will help protect our cultural heritage for years to come.
Michael Daly
East End YIMBY
Shut Him UpFolks: it is time to take Michael Daly at his word(s), unpleasant as that may be. First: glide by his smarmy greeting card calls for “love.” His own words reveal him, above all, and consistently, a purveyor of hate and...
Suffering in SilenceWhen our world gets out of balance, we lose our comfort and security. Too much or too little of anything spikes our fear, and we lose our sense of peace. Those who have what they want and need are comfortable....
Advocate & Adjudicate?The previous administration of [Supervisor Jay] Schneiderman and current board member Tommy John Schiavoni did not give high priority to monitoring appointed public officials for ethical lapses in their private life activities. This laissez-faire policy towards ethics enforcement appears to...
Soil Is CallingIn a book titled “In Old Southampton,” Abigail Halsey reminds us that in the early days of Southampton, “every man was a farmer and a fisherman.” But those days are long gone and most people, today, have no connection to...
A Web of InterestsKudos to Craig Catalanotto [“What Are We Doing?” Letters, April 18] and Barbara Ring [“Tangled Web” Letters, April 18] for their letters to the editor shining a light on the web of special interests, conflicts of interest and misinformation that...
Dates of InfamySeptember 11 and October 7, similar dates of infamy for strong allies with similarly divergent reactions. Now gathered mobs of protesters are cheering on those who cry “Death to America” and call for the complete annihilation and genocide of the...
Your VoiceOn June 25, registered Democrats will go to the ballot box to determine who will represent their ticket for New York’s 1st Congressional District. Although CD1 has recently been held by Republicans, both parties have assumed leadership over the years....
Master ClassI thank Barbara Ring for aptly proving my point. In response to my letter [“An Alliance,” Letters, April 11], which decried the state of civic public discourse in Hampton Bays as being overtaken by misinformation, fear-mongering and conspiracy peddling, Ring...
