Peconic Bay Community Housing Solution Bank

Formation of a Peconic Bay Community Housing Fund Advisory Bureau, consisting of members of each of the town CHF Advisory Boards is recommended.

As stated above, housing challenges often benefit from a regional rather than a purely local approach. These potential solutions can be shared and discussed regionally, with each of the CHF Advisory Board’s sharing their findings, goals, and objectives.

While the East End is comprised of 5 individual townships, many of our collective issues are shared as the Peconic Region and shared solutions can produce exponential results.

Many of the solutions that follow can benefit from a regional approach, with local town, village, and hamlet implementation.

Addressing housing challenges on a regional basis

Addressing housing challenges on a regional basis

Advantages

• Housing-related strategies are not necessarily bound to jurisdictional or geographic boundaries and can be approached from a regional perspective.

• Several issues related to housing, but not bound to geographical or municipal borders such as environment, transportation, schools, etc., require a comprehensive regional approach and cooperation. Therefore solutions for such issues are best addressed with cooperation on a regional level.

Challenges

• Creating a thorough housing strategy and committing to its execution demands substantial resources and strategic planning. The participation of numerous governing bodies emphasizes the need for a unified and cohesive approach. However, conflicting perspectives and varied interests across jurisdictions and stakeholders can be challenging with respect to priorities and strategies, among other factors.

Cape Cod Commission – Regional Housing Strategy

Regional Housing Strategy | Cape Cod Commission

Putting these solutions together is challenging. There are many national and regional planning firms that are actively assisting towns, cities, counties, and states in planning for today’s communities. The following firms are just a few that are currently engaged and could be helpful in crafting an explored, community-driven and data-driven plan.

The Community Housing Fund was passed to assist in creating a ​“New Model” for Community Housing on the East End. The existing model of outside developers proposing a development, then struggling for years with the town permits, zoning and opposition from local residents simply doesn’t work, as evidenced by our current housing challenges.

CHAB’s must gather community input from residents all over the town on how they envision Community Housing Funds to be spent in their villages and hamlets before approving uses of funds for their communities. The goal is to generate ideas from within the community for how to best tackle our housing deficit and allocate CHF’s.

It’s important to keep the conversation focused on what the community DOES WANT, vs what they don’t want, using the tools below. CHAB’s are not there to convince residents to accept any particular form of community housing, only to educate them as to the data, the possibilities that exist, and to assist them in arriving at their own solutions.

Realistically, this may mean that CHF allocations start slowly in the first year or so. But the CHF will not quickly solve a housing problem that has been created over generations. Starting slowly WITH community input and support, and building trust, is preferable to starting too aggressively and being viewed as an unwelcomed threat.

Housing Survey

Southold Town has been using a housing survey for months and is getting a great deal of info. Getting younger people to take the survey has been a challenge, and we should develop strategies on how best to engage younger people. (Survey, adjusted for Southampton, is available in a separate attachment)

Community Meetings

Schedule community meetings in each of the hamlets (or groups of hamlets). Members can host meetings in their own, or neighboring areas. Fellow CHAB Members can participate or provide.

Discussion points:

• Results of the survey

• Education about the possible uses of the CHF

• Education about ways to create housing while protecting the environment and maintaining community character (ie: Missing Middle)

Questions & Answers

Ask a series of questions (below) and get community input as to the best ways forward for each area. (have an easel and markers)

We’re providing this series of questions to help guide you through exploring what your community members need around community housing. There are NO wrong answers! Just an opportunity for you, and your community, to think, discuss and share what needs to take place to make your community whole, healthy and secure.

• A-Who in your community needs more community housing:
  (ages, workers, retirees, families, younger singles, medical, professional, farmers, etc)
• B-What kind of housing do they need?
  (home sales, rentals, condos, townhouses, accessory apartments, 2-4 family homes, etc)
• C-How many of each of the types of housing is needed? (estimate)
  Now, for the fun part…
• D- Where in your community can the housing go, while protecting our environment and rural seaside character?
  (list locations, areas, and specific properties (no preserved property, please)

Wide Representation of Community

Meetings are w a WIDE distribution of community members (15-20?) neutral location (not any one group headquarters) w coffee, water and cookies

• Rotary

• Ch of Comm

• Environmental

• Civic Org’s

• LVIS

• Education (BOE, PTO)

• Vol Fire & EMT

• Real estate

• Banking

• Renters, landlords and homeowners should all be present

Community land trusts are a proven model for communities to control land and development.

Community land trusts (CLTs) are nonprofit organizations governed by a board of CLT residents, community residents, and public representatives that provide lasting community assets and shared equity homeownership opportunities for families and communities. CLTs develop rural and urban agriculture projects, commercial spaces to serve local communities, affordable rental, and cooperative housing projects, and conserve land or urban green spaces. However, the heart of their work is the creation of homes that remain permanently affordable, providing successful homeownership opportunities for generations of lower-income families.

Community Land Trusts | Grounded Solutions Network

Grounded Solutions: Startup Community Land Trust Hub

Community land trusts (CLTs) are organizations that own land and develop it through an inclusive, community-based process. This process lets CLTs develop land according to the community’s needs, which can include anything from open space to a multifamily rental housing project. Most often, however, CLTs are created to provide affordable homeownership opportunities to low- and moderate-income households. The CLT model is structured around a ground lease. The CLT owns land, which is leased to households who purchase the homes that sit on CLT land. Removing the cost of land from the cost of purchasing the home provides a significant subsidy to the households. The ground lease limits the amount for which the home can be sold, passing the subsidy on from one homeowner to the next. CLTs also often retain the right to repurchase the home in the case of foreclosure.

Advantages:

1. CLTs offer a significant advantage of providing affordable housing options for the long term. By imposing restrictions on housing prices, CLTs can maintain housing affordability and ensure that low- and moderate-income individuals or families have access to it indefinitely.

2. CLTs are an effective way to give local communities more control over land use and housing decisions. This structure provides community members the power to prevent and reduce the impact of gentrification and be a valuable tool to protect longtime residents from displacement. Moreover, owning the land protects communities from rising housing costs and speculators that may impact neighborhood housing costs.

3. CLTs are crucial in advancing the accumulation of assets and wealth for local residents. By enabling residents to accumulate equity in their neighborhoods, CLTs offer a valuable tool to increase equity for community members.

Challenges:

1. For CLTs to function properly, it is necessary to have accessible land that can be utilized for affordable housing, open space usage, and other purposes. This may entail changing zoning regulations and local laws, an issue that may take a long time to complete and is politically complicated

2. The establishment of a community land trust entails a significant investment of resources. These funds are required for the acquisition of land, construction or renovation of housing units, upkeep of infrastructure, and the provision of ongoing operational support.

Case Studies:

1. Startup Community Land Trust Hub | Grounded Solutions Network
   The Grounded Solutions Network offers communities the necessary resources and support to kickstart the process of establishing a CLT.

2. Island Housing Trust - Martha’s Vineyard
   The Island Housing Trust is a non-profit Community Land Trust organization that supports a diverse and vital community on the island of Martha’s Vineyard by creating and sustaining permanently affordable housing, both rental and ownership.
   

3. CLT Article: Land Trusts Offer an Innovative Way to Help the Middle Class Afford a Home

4. Atlanta Land Trust / Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation: ​“In Atlanta, a group of organizations dedicated to protecting the history, diversity, and vibrancy of Atlanta has come together to craft a new model for preservation and affordability. Leading this charge are the Atlanta Land Trust and The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, two entities jointly using historic preservation as a driver to maintain affordability and diversity, while promoting sustainability in Atlanta’s beautiful and cherished historic districts.”

The Housing that is Missing in our Communities

The Challenge

Market forces and restrictive zoning have resulted in the disappearance of opportunities for a vast majority of local working people and residents to secure a year-round place to live. Those who don’t choose, or can’t afford, to live in a single-family home are left with the options of living in overcrowded or sub-standard living conditions, or moving further away from their families, jobs, and friends and having to endure long commutes to the East End, causing untenable traffic from morning till night. Many have simply moved away and our human infrastructure is weakening.

In addition, large, state and federally funded affordable housing developments typically generate significant local opposition and take long periods of time (often years) to go through the approval process.

A Solution

Not all community housing created needs to be large or municipally funded. Naturally, Occurring Affordable Housing is affordable by scale and design.

Missing Middle Housing is a range of house-scale buildings with multiple units—compatible in scale and form with detached single-family homes—located in a walkable neighborhood.

See Missing Middle Housing

It works through zoning by towns and villages to permit multi-family and apartment development in their business districts where people live, work, and enjoy life.

Smaller units on smaller lots: result in lower land costs. NOAH units typically range from studios to three bedrooms

Simple Construction: stick-built or modular construction and low-rise. Simple construction also makes it viable for homeowners and small, local businesses and local developers to build NOAH, vastly increasing the pool of ​“developers” able to contribute to the supply of affordable housing. This is an excellent business opportunity for small, local business owners

Less Parking: parking is expensive, and the land cost for off-street parking is high in high-demand areas. Noah is inextricably tied to walkable places, so the need for parking is lower, which lowers the cost per unit yet again. This increases affordability in two ways: lowering housing costs through smaller lot sizes, while also lowering or even eliminating the cost of car ownership.

See: Manor House Home Plan Plan 87348 | Country Style with 4 Bed, 4 Bath

AARP has put together several surprisingly informative studies on how Missing Middle housing can benefit a wide array of community members in a series called LIVABLE COMMUNITIES

Two of the valuable guides on this page are:

Discovering and Developing Missing Middle Housing - What it is. Where it went. And why it’s a needed housing option for people of all ages.

-and-

Relegalizing Missing Middle Housing - A Model Act and Guide to Statewide Legislation provides options for state and local governments to create and enact effective, customized, Middle Housing legislation that works.

Learning from Land Use Reforms: Housing Outcomes and Regulatory Change – NYU Furman Center

https://furmancenter.org/landuse

The Issue

As small houses or apartments that exist on the same property lot as a single-family residence, Accessory Dwelling Units — or ADUs — play a major role in serving a national housing need. This traditional home type is re-emerging as an affordable and flexible housing option that meets the needs of older adults and young families alike.

A Solution

• The ABC’s of ADU’s
• Model State Act and Local Ordinances

Current Challenges:

• Town and Village Zoning Restrictions (some are in review)

• Difficult permitting process

• Expense of building department and health department compliance

• Expense of unit

Hampton Modular, Southampton, is currently offering 5 models of ADU’s ranging from 350 sq ft - 600 sq ft, priced from $95,000 - $180,000 finished

*(buyer supplies water, sewer and electricity hook-ups)

The Issue

Short-term rentals, through online sites like AirBnb, VRBO, Home Away and others are impacting both the year round rental market and sales for locals.

It’s important to know how short-term vacation rentals are impacting your community. Even though this new accommodation brings substantial economic benefits to communities, when unregulated, Airbnb-style rentals can put pressure on communities and the accommodation industry. With the immense growth of short-term vacation rentals in every community, ignoring the impact, whether positive or negative, is not an option anymore. Local governments need to work towards effective and enforceable regulations to protect communities, neighborhood character and housing availability.

Six Ways That Short-Term Vacation Rentals Are Impacting Communities

A Solution

Granicus offers Short-Term Rental Compliance solutions in their suite of software.

Short-Term Vacation Rental Compliance in Government

References

Granicus

Quebec’s New STR Legislation: Quebec’s new Airbnb legislation could be a model for Canada — and help ease the housing crisis | CBC News

Shared Equity Models of Ownership

• Deed-Restricted Homeownership. Under this approach, a subsidy is applied to reduce the purchase price of a new or existing home to a level affordable to homeowners at the target income level.

• Limited Equity Cooperatives.

• Community Land Trusts.

Shared Equity Models of Ownership | National Housing Conference

Accessing Mortgage Financing Options for Buyers of Shared Equity Homes

This resource will help program staff recruit and work with local lending partners to secure mortgage financing options for buyers of shared equity homes.

Accessing Mortgage Financing Options for Buyers of Shared Equity Homes | Grounded Solutions Network

Renter Wealth Creation

The Renter Wealth Creation Fund innovatively provides renters the wealth building opportunities traditionally limited to homeowners. Our fund’s aim: turn rent into wealth for renters.

Renter Wealth Creation Fund | Enterprise Community Partners

The rehabilitation of affordable housing faces many institutional and regulatory barriers. Because the existing stock varies so much in condition, age, and construction methods, the rehab process is far less predictable and in many ways more challenging than new construction. Nevertheless, the rehabilitation of the country’s aging stock is a major resource for meeting the Nation’s affordable housing needs.

Best Practices for Effecting the Rehabilitation of Affordable Housing Volume 1

Growing market pressures and the absence of coordinated funding strategies that are quick and robust enough to compete with market-rate capital have made it harder to put together viable preservation deals. At a basic level, there are three fundamental problems that create the need for a systematic, comprehensive approach to rental housing preservation:

Affordable Rental Housing Preservation: Policies and Funding Strategies

What are housing choice vouchers?

The housing choice voucher program is the federal government’s major program for assisting very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market. Since housing assistance is provided on behalf of the family or individual, participants are able to find their own housing, including single-family homes, townhouses and apartments.

The participant is free to choose any housing that meets the requirements of the program and is not limited to units located in subsidized housing projects.

Housing choice vouchers are administered locally by public housing agencies (PHAs). The PHAs receive federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to administer the voucher program.

A family that is issued a housing voucher is responsible for finding a suitable housing unit of the family’s choice where the owner agrees to rent under the program. This unit may include the family’s present residence. Rental units must meet minimum standards of health and safety, as determined by the PHA.

A housing subsidy is paid to the landlord directly by the PHA on behalf of the participating family. The family then pays the difference between the actual rent charged by the landlord and the amount subsidized by the program. Under certain circumstances, if authorized by the PHA, a family may use its voucher to purchase a modest home.

• Housing Choice Voucher Program Section 8 | HUD.gov / U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

• Southampton Town: Southampton Housing Authority

• East Hampton Town: Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program | East Hampton Town, NY

The Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) and provider agencies offer residential opportunities to people with developmental disabilities that help them live as independently as possible in the community.

By offering support - including Community Habilitation, Environmental Modifications, Live-in Caregivers or Paid Neighbors, people can live at home with family or living independently in their own home or apartment.

Agencies can offer residential opportunities for people in certified homes that give them a different level of support that may be suitable for their needs. The Certified Residential Opportunities protocol is used to determine which level is most appropriate.

Providers can offer people the option to live in a certified home in the community with a small number of other people with developmental disabilities. The agency that runs the home will make sure that there is adequate staffing to meet the needs of the other people living in the home.

OPWDD’s Integrated Supportive Housing program combines affordable housing opportunities with supportive services to assist a person with living independently. Projects usually feature a partnership between a housing developer and an OPWDD service provider and are typically financed through low-income housing tax credits and other public funding streams. Providers interested in participating in a supportive housing project should contact OPWDD’s Housing Office at [email protected].

• Housing | Office for People With Developmental Disabilities

School districts around the country have been searching for ways to create attainable housing opportunities on their campuses so teachers and support staff are able to live close to the schools where they work. School districts can use their resources to support educators, school staff, and their communities by using school-owned property to develop attainable housing. This brief will explore what attainable housing is, how schools can navigate legal compliance considerations, and how Arizona school districts can make this work.

• How School Districts Can Create Attainable Housing Opportunities Legal and Financial Pathways to Attract and Retain Employees

• How School Districts Can Create Attainable Housing Opportunities

While additional research needs to be conducted as to how NYS School Districts can participate in creating affordable housing, here is an example of how it was included in a Charter School in NYC:

East Harlem, New York

The East Harlem Center for Living and Learning in New York City opened in 2015 on land that was previously an underused parking lot and trash facilities. The modern complex includes a 54,000 square foot, four-story charter school, nonprofit offices, and 80,000 square feet of apartments.

The 89 apartments, called Yomo Toro, are affordable for those making 60 percent of the area median income. The project included revitalization of a local park at Washington Houses, a public housing development next door. Some of the public housing residents were reportedly able to move into the new affordable homes. It is not clear if preference was specifically given to educators for the affordable apartments.

According to the National Fire Protection Association’s 2018 U.S. Fire Department Profile, 67 percent of firefighters nationwide are volunteers, and fire departments rely on these volunteers to help respond to a wide array of local emergencies. In Wisconsin, nearly 93 percent of fire departments are volunteer or mostly volunteer. Recruiting and retaining volunteer firefighters is critical for thousands of communities, yet local volunteer fire departments, especially those serving small and rural communities, find it difficult to meet staffing needs and attract younger volunteers.

The Volunteer First Responder Housing Act would expand eligibility for qualified volunteer first responders to participate in certain federal housing assistance programs and provide a greater incentive for more volunteers to stay and continue to serve their communities.

• Baldwin, Capito, Tester, Cramer Introduce Bipartisan Reform to Provide Affordable Housing for Volunteer Firefighters and First Responders

• First Responder Housing Assistance: First Responder Mortgage Programs and Down Payment Assistance - Localize

• NY town proposal would give firefighters housing priority: NY town proposal would give firefighters housing priority

We’ve been made aware of East End hospitals challenged to hire employees due to the lack of housing. Here’s what’s happening in Martha’s vineyard:

The hospital purchased 26 acres on Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road in 2021 and hopes to build a combination of housing for elderly with skilled nursing care available, as well as workforce housing. The hospital is working with Navigator Elder Homes New England to create sustainable, transformative elder care for its dozens of residents through a concept called Green House homes.

• Housing for hospital workers called ​‘crisis’.

• Making the Case for Hospitals to Invest in Housing | AHA

Resort communities are appealing places to live year round, with stunning natural beauty and recreational opportunities in abundance. However, the same factors can make them difficult for year-round and seasonal locals who run the ski lifts, fight fires, serve meals in restaurants, and teach in schools. Even as the COVID-19 pandemic raised awareness of the importance of essential workers, it has also exacerbated the housing affordability challenge with the rise of remote work and the resulting spike in second-home ownership rates.

Local governments are taking notice, devising innovative solutions to build more housing—and preserve existing housing stock—for their locals. With strategic planning and plenty of public outreach, five resort communities are taking on residents’ concerns over increased density and turning to new methods of ensuring that for-sale and rental housing stays within reach of the people who make these places function.

Creating Attainable Housing for the Workforce in Resort Communities

Creating Attainable Housing for the Workforce in Resort Communities - Urban Land Magazine

The Cape & Islands Regional Workforce Blueprint (dated, good study)

The Cape & Islands Regional Workforce Blueprint | Mass.gov

Many maturing adults wish to remain in their own home for as long as possible, yet many also wish they could give up the requirements and expense of caring for a home and property. Some don’t drive and feel isolated, requiring assistance with shopping and medical appointments.

Some would prefer to live in a village setting where they could walk to the post office, coffee shop, park and library, and be with friends in a low maintenance environment.

An additional benefit to providing apartments for seniors in our villages and business districts, would be that their single-FAMILY homes would then become available for other families that need them.

Senior apartments are a win-win for creating a sustainable community.

11 Housing Options for Older Adults

Housing for Seniors: Challenges and Solutions

• The older population is projected to grow rapidly, and although many seniors wish to remain in their homes for as long as possible, challenges related to affordability, accessibility, and poor linkages to health services may make doing so difficult.

• Expanding the supply of aging-friendly housing options, rental assistance, home repairs and modifications, accessible residential design and community planning, as well as improving the links between housing and healthcare, among other strategies, can help seniors age safely, comfortably, and affordably in their homes and communities.

Older adults desire walkable lifestyles

• Five Reasons Demand for Walkability is Growing Across America

Overview of the TDR Program

The Town Board finds that one of the tools available to conserve farmland, environmentally sensitive lands, and scenic vistas is the use of a Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program. The Southampton TDR program will further the goals and objectives of the 1999 Comprehensive Plan, the Central Pine Barrens Comprehensive Land Use Plan adopted by the Town Board on June 27, 1995, and the Suffolk County Smart Growth Policy Plan adopted in 2000 including:

• Encouraging compact and orderly development

• Preserving open spaces, groundwater resources, other natural and historic resources, and working farms

• Providing for a variety of housing choices

Transfer of Development Rights | Southampton, NY - Official Website

Peconic Bay Community Preservation Fund Advisory Opinions Bureau

For instance, the municipality may determine that fostering the development of additional affordable housing units in the community is a valuable consideration sufficient to justify the transfer of development rights to create those units.

Southampton Affordable Housing Development Rights

As there becomes less Open Space and Farmland to preserve using Community Preservation Funds, it is not uncommon to see CPF monies being used to acquire properties and existing living structures on them. When CPF acquires the property, unless the structure has significant historic value, it is typically torn down.

Where possible, the CHF can work with the CPF to secure the property and structures that are put through a fast-track subdivision process - which needs to be established in each municipality. Ideally, a regional fast track process would be created to expedite such instances and not delay acquisitions.

Then those living spaces can be managed by a non-profit housing organizations as workforce housing.

For example: Below is the Town of Southampton CPF, WQ and CHF general legislation.

• Town of Southampton, NY / Part II: General Legislation

• Chapter 140 Community Preservation Fund and Community Housing Fund

• Town of Southampton, NY Community Preservation Fund and Community Housing Fund

Just as Historic, Agricultural and Open Space easements have been used for preservation, Affordable Housing Easements can be used to keep homes and properties affordable.

Affordable Housing Conservation Easement

Affordable Housing Conservation Easement - HousingWiki

Another use for Affordable Housing Eastements would be for Senior Apartments to be built in village and hamlet business districts and to purchase affordability easements from seniors on their existing home, which would allow them to then move into those apartments, making their SFR available for local families.