CAN MY KIDS BE ELIGIBLE FOR NEXT GENERATION HOUSING?

That’s the whole idea.  We want every town and village on Long Island to provide housing opportunities for its own children.  And they can.  Even housing whose sale or rental cost is kept down through Federal or State subsidies can be awarded to occupants based upon a “preference” list.  That means, for example, that a village can approve next generation housing on the condition that it first be available to people who live in that village.  The same condition can be applied to create a preference for people who live in a specific school district.  In short, next generation housing can be built in such a way as to virtually ensure that your kids can be eligible.

WHY THE URGENCY?  BECAUSE LONG ISLAND IS LOSING YOUNGER PEOPLE.

You may have read about the “Brain Drain” on Long Island.  Well, it’s happening and it has never happened before.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, during the 1990s, Long Island’s population of people between the ages of 20 and 34 decreased by over 128,000.  That’s the first time in history our population of younger people declined.  Some of it was due to lower birth rates in the past; a lot of it was due to younger people simply leaving.  And Census Bureau estimates indicate that between 2000 and 2004, our 25-44 population decreased another 65,000.  In other words, our population of younger people is still shrinking at an alarming rate.

And remember: while it’s true that some young Long Islanders always have left and not returned, before the 1990s Long Island’s younger population still grew.  From the 1960s through the 1980s, it grew by almost 300,000 people.

AND THE MIDDLE CLASS CANNOT FIND HOMES THEY CAN AFFORD.

Who doesn’t know middle class working families on Long Island that are struggling to find homes they can afford?  Who doesn’t know hard working middle class young married couples living with a parent and unable to afford a home of their own?  All Long Islanders know from their life experience these days that middle class families, especially younger ones, are not able to have the homes that prior generations of families on Long Island could afford.

Beyond our collective experience, there is a statistical way to see what effect the housing crisis is having on the middle class.  When you go for a mortgage, banks and all mainstream lenders use a simple formula to decide how much of a loan you can afford.  The formula is a ratio of household income (all the income that comes into the home from any member of the household) to loan amount.  Mainstream lenders will only lend you 2 ½ times as much as your annual household income.

Over the decades, if we had looked at Long Island as a whole to measure people’s median household income against the median price of a home, we would have found that the median price of homes on Long Island was no more than 2 ½ times median household income.  That tells us, in general, that most middle class Long Islanders could have afforded most homes on the Island in past years.  And experience proves it.  Millions of people grew up in middle class families here that were able to afford decent homes, and even save up to move into better homes more than once in their lives.

Not now.  Currently, the ratio of median home price to media household income is 4.8 to 1 in Nassau County and 4.5 to 1 in Suffolk County.  There could not be clearer statistical proof that middle class Long Islanders cannot afford homes here the way they once could.

WHY HAS THIS HAPPENED?

It has happened because, in general, local zoning authorities have chosen not to permit a variety of housing types to be built on Long Island.  Single-family homes predominate here, more so than in any other place in the nation.  Why have local authorities acted that way?  Probably because that’s how the majority of Long Islanders wanted them to act.  In other words, we wanted single-family homes and not more dense developments, such as townhouses, and that’s what we have gotten.  The problem now is that we do not have nearly enough of the kinds of housing that many middle class families, and many young single people, need.

WHAT MAKES NEXT GENERATION HOUSING MORE AFFORDABLE?

Two things: density and government financial support.  Homebuilders on Long Island are willing and ready to build all sorts of housing types – if local zoning authorities permit them to do so.  But homebuilders, like all people in business, need to make a reasonable profit.  To accomplish that and still build housing that more people can afford, either of two things has to happen: first, the cost of the land or the construction has to be offset by government financial support; or, second, homebuilders have to be allowed to build more homes per acre.

Building more homes per acre is called density.  How much density makes next generation housing affordable?  The answer varies a little, but usually about ten units per acre works.  That means, for example, ten apartments of mixed size, such as studio, one-bedroom , and two-bedroom apartments.

So, are we talking about becoming “the 6th borough”?  Not even close.  There are thousands of beautiful communities all across the country that have ten housing units per acre and they don’t look anything like a “6th borough”.  Ten beautifully designed, attractive units can be built on acre of property without going above a second floor.

I’VE HEARD THAT “AFFORDABLE” HOUSING IS CHEAPLY CONSTRUCTED HOUSING, IS THAT TRUE?

Surprisingly to many people, exactly the opposite is true.  Because people have long been concerned about badly constructed government-subsidized housing, the federal government has actually raised the construction standards for homes it financially supports so that, now, “affordable” housing is constructed to a standard higher than local building codes require.

WON’T NEXT GENERATION HOUSING LOOK BAD IN NEIGHBORHOODS WITH MORE EXPENSIVE HOMES?

No.  Because the building requirements for Next Generation Housing are higher than normal construction standards, the materials used are just as good as those used in most home building today.  And architects across the country have come up with designs for multi-family homes that make them indistinguishable from large single-family homes nearby. 

WHAT SORT OF PEOPLE GENERALLY LIVE IN NEXT GENERATION AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING?

Teachers, fire fighters, nurses, engineers, young executives, carpenters, electricians. In other words, people from all parts of the middle class who cannot find more affordable places to live otherwise.

WON’T NEXT GENERATION HOUSING BRING MORE PEOPLE TO LONG ISLAND?

No.  Right now hundreds of thousands of Long Islanders are living at home with their parents or living in “illegal” apartments.  We’re talking about building studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments for those people.  In other words, people who already live on Long Island.  We need to give those people a reasonable place to live so that they don’t leave here.  That’s the idea behind Next Generation Housing,

WON’T NEXT GENERATION HOUSING OVERCROWD THE SCHOOLS AND DRIVE UP TAXES?

Just the opposite.  Studies across the nation have consistently shown that when a mix of housing types (studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments) are built on a plot of land instead of large single family homes, fewer children wind up going into the schools and the school districts get more property taxes.  That may seem contrary to what your instincts tell you would happen, but it’s true and there’s a simple explanation.  People who buy four bedroom homes are filling those bedrooms with a large family of kids.  Four bedrooms usually means three kids or more.  Ten single-family houses like that on ten acres might add 30 to 40 kids to the schools.  But people who buy or rent studio and one-bedroom apartments often don’t have school age kids.  So, on the same five acres a mixed housing project might have 50 apartments, only 10 or 15 of which have a second bedroom.  Usually, that means no more than 15 or 20 kids at the most entering the schools.  Yet, the mixed housing development as a whole has a higher assessed value than the single-family homes so the taxes they generate are higher.  Done correctly, Next Generation Housing puts fewer kids into the schools and generates more taxes for the district, holding down taxes for other home owners.

I LIVE IN AN UPSCALE AREA, WHY SHOULD NEXT GENERATION HOUSING GO IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD?

Why not?  If your kids can live at home why can’t they live in well-constructed multi-apartment houses designed to look just like upscale homes in your area?  Remember, next generation housing, even housing subsidized by the federal government, is not cheap housing; it is built to higher construction standards than local building codes require.  So, we’re talking about your kids being able to live in the area in which they grew up in nicely designed, well-constructed apartments that fit in with the surrounding community.  Why not?

WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF LONG ISLAND DOESN’T BUILD ENOUGH HOUSING THAT WORKING PEOPLE CAN AFFORD?

The answer is already pretty clear: more and more people will choose to move to places where they can find nice housing that is more affordable.  That’s already happening.  The result will be a constantly shrinking workforce, which will make it impossible for businesses to expand here.  And if businesses can’t expand here, eventually they will choose to move as well.  The tax base will shrink while costs continue to rise and the taxes we pay will get even higher.

Businesses already are worried about that and it’s affecting their business outlook.  Recently, the “Long Island Economic Survey and Opinion Poll,” which surveyed thousands of businesses in the region, was released by Albrecht, Viggiano, Zureck & Company and Dowling College.  The survey said that “respondents repeated over and over that the high cost of living and/or housing is driving young educated workers off Long Island.”  Most significantly, when asked, “What is the greatest obstacle Long Island faces in achieving greater economic success?”  37 percent responded “Affordable Housing,” by far the highest response given. The next highest response was “Medical Insurance/Healthcare Costs” at 17 percent.  Taxes came in at 14 percent.

FINDING AN AFFORDABLE PLACE TO LIVE IS HARD ENOUGH, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE COST OF TAXES AND ENERGY?

First of all, if we don’t provide younger people places they can afford to live and they leave Long Island, our taxes will go up as a result.  The only way to keep taxes down when expenses rise is to expand the number of people and businesses paying taxes.  If the workforce shrinks, the people and businesses still here have to pay more and more in taxes every year.  We’re all in a sort of big tax pool; the more of us in the pool the less each of us has to pay.

Taxes and energy costs for single-family homes are high, too high for many people.  But next generation housing is not necessarily about single-family homes.  It’s about studio apartments renting for $500 a month; one-bedrooms renting for $800 a month; and two-bedrooms renting for $1,200 a month.  Taxes included.  That’s the difference.  Sure taxes and energy costs are high on Long Island, but we can still build small apartments that are affordable, even with taxes and energy costs included.