New Affordable Housing Plan Pitched by Southampton Supervisor

SOUTHAMPTON , NY - Affordable housing, or the lack thereof, is a critical concern in the Town of Southampton.

That’s why, Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said this week, he’s ready to pitch a new solution.

“The approach the town has been employing over the las 20 years is not working. There hasn’t been a single unit of affordable rental apartments produced by the town in two decades. We’re in the throes of a clearly identifiable crisis and the response has been woefully lacking.”

To that end, Schneiderman has been working on a solution: His idea centers on creation of a new inventory of accessory apartments within existing dwellings.

The idea, he said, would be to match up workers with housing in close proximity to their jobs, effectively providing an answer to the affordable housing crisis and reducing traffic on congested roads.

Schneiderman said he’s looking to launch the program with 25 new affordable apartments this year, to get the concept up and running.

The plan is to hire a private consultant “ to put all the pieces together,” the supervisor said.

Ideally, the plan would work for empty nesters who might be living alone in a four bedroom home on half an acre; currently, they would not have enough land to create an accessory apartment.

Instead, the goal would be to convert a section of the house into a separate living space, with a kitchen, bathroom, walls, and entryways, Schneiderman said. The renovations, although pricey, would be financed by a third party lender who would put up the money; those costs would be paid back out of the rental income after the space was rented, he said.

“There would be no upfront costs,” Schneiderman said. “Basically, you would be using your house to help address a serious community problem, you’d have a person or maybe a couple with a place to live — and you’d have a revenue stream.”

The program would be focused primarily east of the Shinnecock Canal, Schneiderman said. “That’s where we need to create housing.”

With the new units located inside already existing dwellings, “No one will even know they’re there,” he said. Also, the units would not be sited “one on top of another”; instead, rules could be created so there are only one per street, for example.

“I want to make this a model program and hopefully, other towns will follow suit,” Schneiderman said, adding that he’s already garnered support for the idea.