Everyone is talking about housing, or, rather, the lack of affordable housing. It’s not new, but it has reached crisis proportions.
So many longtime residents and workers can no longer afford to live here: our teachers, firefighters/EMTs, health care workers and more. Many travel two hours each way in the summer to provide us with essential services. Schools and health care facilities are scrambling to keep required staffing levels. Fire departments are in need of volunteers.
We depend on all of these workers for our own health and that of our community. How can we make a positive impact on this crisis?
We have a chance to do so, and to take an important step forward to improve our towns’ model for affordable housing.
I urge everyone to flip the ballot and vote yes on Proposition 3, the Community Housing Fund referendum. It’s on the ballot in East Hampton, Southampton, Shelter Island and Southold towns.
The Community Housing Fund will allow towns to collect a 0.5 percent fee on real estate sales (paid by the buyer) without raising taxes for local residents. First-time buyers will be exempt, and the first $400,000 of the sales price is exempt, too. The funds will be used to support housing for local first responders, health care workers, teachers, and those who live and work in our community.
A town advisory committee, made up of local residents, will be formed to recommend the most effective ways to use the funds to benefit our local residents. Low-cost loans, shared equity purchases, home rehabilitation, and rentals for essential workers are just a few of the ways that each town will be able to design its plan to use the funds. It’s an important step toward easing our housing crisis.
So, on November 8, or before if you’re an early voter, please flip the ballot and join me in voting yes for community housing.
Kathryn Szoka
Vote YES Community Housing Committee
Buyer's RemorseWe are seeing a disturbing trend on the East End and particularly in the Town of Southampton. It is perplexing to witness extremely wealthy buyers, ones with resources to fund endless, years-long legal battles, to the detriment of neighbors and...
Selective EntitlementsKudos to Highway Superintendent Charlie McArdle for his self-serving pat on the back with his “Outside the Box” letter [July 18]. His “outside the box” is nothing more than selective entitlements given to a very small group of people who...
LifesaverOn July 15, my husband was powerwalking along Route 114 at 11:30 a.m. when he collapsed from heat stroke. A woman, or, I should say, an angel, stopped her car and loaded a bloodied, almost unconscious person into her car...
Compliant MessagingPaula Angelone, another useful tool of the Trump derangement syndrome-afflicted, railed against Donald Trump’s perceived violent rhetoric of the past as a sorry excuse for the assassination attempt last week [“American Landscape,” Letters, July 18]. Claiming “violence begets violence,” she...
Dear LeaderKudos to whoever decided to devote a half page (!) in last week’s edition to some stunningly deep investigative reporting! To wit: A part-time resident of Sag Harbor, who doubles as a full-time anchor on the dear leader TV network,...
One-Way StreetI resigned from the Southampton Town Planning Board last month. That was not an easy decision, as I truly enjoyed working with the planning staff and the wonderful people who serve on that board. That said, I’m a community advocate...
A ShowmanI was amused to read last week’s Letters to the Editor by Bill Jones [“End the Bias”], Thomas Jones [“Abject Failure”], Ed Surgan [“Sky Isn’t Falling”], and John Porta [“Bleak Alternative]. If you believe their words and statistics then you...
Unfit for OfficeAs an independent voter, I have been very frustrated, like many, about the candidates being offered by the Democrats and Republicans for the presidency come November, as both to me appeared unfit for office. One’s weaknesses became increasingly clear as...
