Stop Stalling

In January, at an Express Sessions event, Kara Bak, who is the director of housing for Southampton Town, made clear the stakes when it comes to affordable housing: “Both East Hampton and Southampton have this crisis, and we are at a crisis level,” she said. “We have young people who are leaving the area, we have seniors who can’t afford to stay, we have this huge traffic problem because the people who work in our community can’t afford to live in it.”

Advocates of more affordable housing in both towns said streamlining the process and maximizing the impact of each individual project are two ways to begin to address the crisis.

But this week, it feels like there has been little progress: The Southampton Town Board seems to still be stuck in first gear when it comes to reforming the process.

Supervisor Maria Moore and Councilman Bill Pell both voted against directing $2.7 million in Community Housing Fund revenue to a 79-unit workforce housing project on Quiogue — and Pell outrageously suggested sending the project back to square one, on a project that’s moved through the process and is nearly ready to start building. During a separate conversation about streamlining the process, Pell voiced hesitance, worried that even 20 units on a 2-acre property would “scare” neighbors.

The day of politicians being afraid of angering small pockets of objectors is over. This is a moment that requires some fortitude from people in Town Hall. “This is not the place for affordable housing” is no longer a reasonable position — every place is the place for it. There is better and worse, certainly, but no neighborhood should be excluded, no matter how much outcry.

Nobody wants to see officials in either town throw caution to the wind and enact policies that are reckless or impulsive. But analysis paralysis isn’t acceptable at this point: The crisis is in full bloom, and every month that passes sends more local workers in search of more affordable circumstances. That creates a “brain drain,” or it adds to the traffic coming daily from the west. The house is on fire, and it feels like town officials are arguing over the number of turns on a garden hose spigot — when it’s time to call the fire department.

Southampton Town in particular is years behind in charting an effective response to this crisis. The CHF is a green light, and there is no more time to dither with old thinking about strategic use of small pockets of high-density apartment complexes to help create affordable dwellings for the local workforce. The town needs guardrails so that affordable housing overlays can be created by town planners, and housing can be built quickly within certain parameters. In the meantime, the first projects in the pipeline, which have been properly vetted already, need to be ushered to the starting line, pronto, rather than facing needless last-minute obstructions.

Those conversations should be happening every day at Town Hall — and anyone who doesn’t have the stomach for it should just get out of the way. The house is burning: Get some water on the flames.