It’s no secret that there’s an affordable housing crisis on the North Fork and for anyone hoping to buy a starter home in the area, a look through local real estate listings is a sobering experience.
According to Zillow, in September the median home value in Southold was $562,700; in Greenport it was $478,200 and in Mattituck $538,200.
And affordable rentals?
Since the explosion in popularity of Airbnb and HomeAway, reasonably priced year-round housing is almost impossible to find.
So just where are young families, singles and regular woking folk supposed to live?
Southold builder Stacey Bishop, an experienced affordable housing developer, hopes to answer that question. This week she hosted a public information-gathering forum in Greenport to find out just what the community needs, wants and can afford.
Bishop was joined by Southold Town Housing Advisory Commission chair Rona Smith and Glynis Berry from the non-profit Peconic Green Growth to speak with locals about affordable housing. Although the forum was sparsely attended, those who were there shared experiences that will be helpful in coming up with a plan for the future.
Bishop is passionate about finding a long-term solution for housing on the North Fork. She owns a construction company that specializes in building modular homes and is confident that given the opportunity, she can provide quality affordable housing on the North Fork.
“I’d like to see some sort of development that leans more towards communities, people in houses or townhouses, not so much apartments,” said Bishop. “When I went out and talked to people on the North Fork about what they want, only one person said they would want to live over a shop.”
Bishop says that by building modular homes instead of traditional stick-built homes, savings can be substantial.
“Modular homes are just as good as or better than traditional homes,” she says. “And they’re infinitely cheaper to build.”
People often confuse modular homes with mobile homes, but they’re completely different.
A modular home is built in a factory and shipped in sections to a building site, explains Bishop. Enormous factories in places like Pennsylvania build hundreds and hundreds of homes a year and are able to buy in bulk and save money on labor costs. There are no delays due to weather that a traditional build might encounter.
The quality of mobile homes can vary, says Bishop, but she only works with the best suppliers.
“I have contracts with people at the top level,” she says. “I live here and I don’t want to be running into someone in King Kullen and have them throw a bag of frozen peas at my head because the house I built for them stinks.”
Bishop is adamant about finding a way to help the people of Southold Town.
“This community has helped me so much; they stepped up when I needed them and I want to give back,” she says.
Over a decade ago, Bishop and a partner came up with a plan to build affordable houses on the piece of land in Mattituck where the proposed Sports East project was to be built.
“We went to the town and presented our ideas and they said no,” she said.
The successful Cottages at Mattituck affordable housing development was based on those ideas, she said, although she did not recommend building two bedroom homes.
Unable to figure out a way to build an affordable community in Southold, Bishop moved on, working with individuals to provide affordable modular homes on Long Island and in communities throughout the Northeast.
She would like to use her skills to help solve the housing crisis here at home.
“There are programs and grants available that would defer some of the costs,” said Bishop. The Community Development Corporation of Long Island, a nonprofit housing organization, for example, purchased the land for the Cottages at Mattituck.
At Monday’s forum, several young locals expressed their frustration and sadness at not being able to afford to buy a home in the community they love.
Tammy Martinez grew up in Greenport and wants to raise her family there. But she and her husband Pablo keep hitting a wall trying to find anything affordable.
“The houses here are completely out of our reach,” she says. “And anything that comes up for sale is gone immediately. Everyone is coming out from the city and paying cash.”
Martinez says that her sister was forced out of the area and moved to Florida where a three-bedroom apartment near the beach can go for $1,200 or $1,400.
But Martinez doesn’t want to leave.
“’I’ve lived out here my whole life. I’m raising my kids out here and I want to stay here.”
Southold Town Housing Advisory Commission chair Rona Smith acknowledged that there is an affordable housing crisis in Southold Town and stressed the need for experienced affordable housing developers to get involved.
“Land is so expensive here,” said Smith. “We’ve preserved so much land in Southold Town that we’re limited in how much is available for sale. The only way any kind of affordable development happens is if there are subsidies. That’s why we need experienced developers who know how to tap into these subsidies.”
Southold Town insists that if anyone comes here to build, they have to build things that are going to be affordable in perpetuity, Smith said, adding that within the next two to three weeks, Southold Town will be announcing the creation of an affordable rental development.
“It’s going to be on a fairly large piece of land with lots of open spaces,” she said. “It will be four to six apartments in buildings that look like farmhouses spread over a large piece of land.”
In order to qualify for one of these rental units, people will need to be within a certain income bracket and once a list is drawn up and the units are built, there will be a lottery.
Bishop brought up the idea of releasing preserved land to allow builders to develop affordable housing as one North Carolina municipality did.
“Would the town be amenable to taking a parcel of land that’s already been preserved that’s not in an environmentally sensitive area and sell it for affordable housing?” Bishop asked Smith.
“That land is preserved with a 2-percent tax so it has very strict rules. It’s preserved, so it will never be built on again,” replied Smith.
Bishop will continue to search out land on which to build affordable housing, she says, and hopes to hold more forums on the subject.
“I really want to come up with some solutions,” she says. “I am trying to keep people here but I don’t know how they can stay here. My own kids can’t stay here.”
Peconic Green Growth’s Berry hopes there is a role for the non-profit in the creation of affordable housing in Southold Town. PGG’s mission is to look at the integration of the environment and the community and while its focus has been on water quality issues, Berry said the group would like to become involved in the creation of affordable housing and determine if there is a need for other resources or organizations to further the goal of providing affordable housing on the North Fork.
“Affordable housing is one of the things that makes for a sustainable environment,” said Berry.
She would like to see an end to the construction of over-55 communities, instead moving toward integrated communities populated by people of all different ages.
Berry has put together a survey to determine what type of housing people want, which can be filled out anonymously here.
