Third in a series about housing on Long Island.
Long Island’s housing crisis is more than bricks and mortar — it’s a battleground where zoning, politics and community identity collide. At its root, the issue is a chronic lack of supply, Richard Murdocco, a land use columnist and lecturer at Stony Brook University, says.
“Our housing supply has always been inadequate,” Murdocco said. “The pandemic only amplified the problem.”
Murdocco said that zoning laws, while often criticized, generally serve a purpose by preventing overbuilding and protecting the environment, including Long Island’s sole-source aquifer. Still, he noted that some restrictions could be updated to allow for more diverse housing types, adding, “Planning is about the balance of economic and social development.”
Many Long Island communities rely heavily on single-family zoning, which limits options for renters and first-time homebuyers. Murdocco pointed to examples like allowing accessory dwelling units and legalizing safe basement apartments as steps that could help ease the affordability problem without contributing to overdevelopment.
Vision Long Island, a Northport-based nonprofit, promotes Smart Growth planning by working with residents and local leaders to revitalize downtowns, encourage mixed-use development and build transit-oriented housing. Its director, Erik Alexander, said these efforts have produced more than 18,000 units near public transit in 45 communities over two decades, with over 60 downtowns completing visioning or master plans.
“The balance comes from the planning — not from us imposing our will,” Alexander noted. “When regional authorities do that, it backfires.”
He pointed to Matinecock Court in East Northport — a 146-unit affordable housing project proposed in the 1970s but delayed for decades by lawsuits, opposition and zoning hurdles — as emblematic of Long Island’s housing struggles. Construction finally began in 2021, and as it nears completion, advocates see it both as a symbol of resistance to affordable housing and a hard-won step forward.
Alexander said the barriers extend beyond zoning or community opposition to include economics and funding. “Affordability is largely a function of subsidy,” he said, “and Long Island doesn’t get its fair share.”
Alexander noted that although Long Island accounts for 15 percent of New York’s population and contributes over 2 percent in taxes, it receives only about 3 percent of the state’s affordable housing funds.
“People want walkable downtowns, community, affordability, safety,” he said. “We can have all of that, but it has to come from within.”
Vision Long Island also collaborates with the Long Island Housing Partnership, the region’s oldest affordable housing organization. Since 1988, President Peter Elkowitz has led its mission to preserve affordability while respecting Long Island’s suburban character.
Their efforts focus on accessory dwelling units, targeted zoning reforms, and large-scale redevelopment designed to fit into existing communities. Long Island’s complex governance — two counties, 13 townships and 95 villages — adds hurdles, with overlapping approvals from school districts, health departments, and sewer authorities slowing progress, Elkowitz said.
“We are inundated with different levels of government that also have overlapping responsibilities,” he said.
Programs like down payment assistance, offered through county and town governments, remain key to making homeownership more accessible. Accessory dwelling units, also known as ADUs — small units within or beside single-family homes — are also growing in popularity, helping homeowners offset taxes and support multigenerational living, the Long Island Housing Partnership’s executive vice president, James Britz, said.
“You’re renovating a single-family home, you’re not creating density in those cases,” Britz said.
ADUs have been implemented in several Suffolk towns, including Huntington, Southold, Brookhaven, and soon Riverhead and Islip, while new developments are incorporating them from the start. A Bellport project will add 32 single-family homes with ADUs, and in Bay Shore, a multi-phase revitalization replaced blighted blocks with 118 new homes, sparking further investment and transforming the neighborhood.
Advocates stress that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but sharing successes, prioritizing quality design and engaging communities early can build support, Elkowitz said.
“If you do it right and you include the community, and you include something aesthetically pleasing and creative, the community usually gets behind you,” he said.
State efforts to provide affordable housing have faced backlash on L.I.
To address the state’s housing shortage, Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed the New York Housing Compact, which aimed to build 800,000 homes over the next decade. The plan, proposed for the 2024 fiscal year Executive Budget, included statewide zoning mandates requiring suburban towns to allow higher-density development near transit.
The initiative was intended to address New York’s housing shortage: 1.2 million jobs had been added over the previous decade, but only 400,000 homes had been built. In that time, rents had risen 60 percent, and home prices 50 to 80 percent. According to the governor’s office, restrictive zoning, red tape and lengthy approvals had made building new housing more difficult.
“The New York Housing Compact is a comprehensive plan to spur the changes needed to create more housing, meet rising demand, and make our state a more equitable, stable, and affordable place to live,” Hochul stated in a news release.
The initiative faced strong opposition throughout the state, with over 200 elected officials in both parties voicing their opposition, according to Alexander.
“It was completely out of touch — designed to help New York City developers build more cheaply out here,” he said.
Long Island elected officials argued that the compact would strip local control over zoning. In March 2023, a month before the 2024 state budget deadline, local leaders — including former Town of Hempstead Supervisor Don Clavin — gathered at the Capitol in Albany, promoting a petition signed by more than 20,000 residents against the initiative.
“Removing the ability for local municipalities to oversee their housing development is wrong,” Clavin said, “and that’s why we brought a collective voice from all over New York state to Albany.”
State Sen. Steve Rhoads called the housing plan “reckless and irresponsible,” saying residents should have a say in their communities.
“Allow those of us who actually know Long Island, the streets of Syracuse or Buffalo, to determine what we are going to do with respect to our own jurisdictions and housing,” Rhoads said.
According to reports, Hochul’s housing compact was pulled from the 2024 state budget after receiving little legislative support, but the state has made progress in expanding affordable housing.
In February, the State Senate advanced a package of affordable housing bills aimed at helping homeowners and renters, including a home savings program for first-time buyers, free counseling and legal services through the Homeownership Protection Program, and a two-year look-back for senior and disability rent increase exemptions. The bills are currently awaiting action in the Assembly.
Pro-Housing Community Program sees strong support in Suffolk, but not Nassau
After the Housing Compact plan collapsed, Hochul signed Executive Order 30 in July 2023, creating the Pro-Housing Communities program, which provides up to $650 million annually to communities that commit to modestly increasing housing supply. To date, over 340 communities have been certified.
“There’s only one solution to New York’s housing affordability crisis: we’ve got to build more housing,” Hochul said in a statement. “The Pro-Housing Communities initiative is delivering the incentives communities are looking for, and this latest round of grant funding will make a real difference in every region of New York.”
Downstate municipalities can earn Pro-Housing Community certification by showing 1 percent housing growth in the past year or 3 percent over the past three years, or by committing to future development through a Pro-Housing Resolution. Localities must earn Pro-Housing Communities certification to access key discretionary funding programs, which includes the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, the NY Forward program, the Long Island Investment Fund, and the Public Transportation Modernization Enhancement Program.
Suffolk leads Nassau in Pro-Housing certifications and letters of intent, reflecting a regional shift toward broader policy acceptance. A Herald analysis, which accounts for land mass and acreage, shows that about 58 percent of Suffolk communities are certified or have submitted a letter of intent, compared to roughly 13 percent in Nassau.
Although several municipalities in the Town of Hempstead — such as Valley Stream and Freeport — are certified as Pro-Housing Communities, the town itself is not and has no plans to seek certification. The Village of Hempstead, however, recently earned certification, as development began on two buildings by Conifer-LeChase Construction with 258 affordable units, plus a 96-unit apartment complex on Bedell Street, half reserved for veterans, making it eligible for a $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant.
In 2019, the state selected the township to receive a $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative award for Baldwin. Its assets — including the Long Island Rail Road, strategic downtown investments, and infrastructure improvements — positioned it as an ideal candidate with a head start on the process.
“Currently, two housing projects contained within the DRI are underway in Baldwin, with another two projects in the planning phase, and another transit-oriented development is approaching completion in West Hempstead,” Brian Devine, the Town of Hempstead’s director of communications, said.
The town’s efforts to address affordable housing didn’t start with Baldwin. The Archstone Westbury project, which opened in 2006 at Meadowbrook Crossing, provided 396 units. According to Devine, it was the first Long Island project with an affordable housing component, with 20 percent of units designated as affordable and 10 percent specifically for residents ages 62 and older.
Except for the Village of Farmingdale, the Town of Oyster Bay is also not part of the Pro-Housing Community program. Public Information Officer Brian Nevin said that such programs come with strings attached, pressuring municipalities to meet “unrealistic growth quotas” that could strain infrastructure, schools and public safety while raising taxes for current homeowners.
“The Town of Oyster Bay has consistently opposed Albany’s one-size-fits-all housing mandates,” Nevin said in an emailed statement, “which fail to recognize the unique character and already-developed nature of our suburban communities like ours.”
Nevin added that the town is committed to development that balances growth with preserving suburban quality of life. Nearly 500 residential units are underway in Hicksville, including mixed-use and transit-oriented projects. The town, he said, is encouraging the state to remove “unrealistic mandates” and return to the original Downtown Revitalization Initiative, which has proven successful in Hicksville, Westbury and other nearby communities.
“Our priority is to promote affordable and attainable housing options in a way that protects taxpayers and maintains the character of our neighborhoods,” Nevin said, “without ceding local control to Albany bureaucrats.”
