Bob Kohn told the crowd assembled at Shelter Island Town Hall (and on Zoom) that when Town Board members interviewed him for the Community Housing Board, he promised some “out of the box thinking.”
So what’s Bob Kohn’s big idea for those who can’t afford to live here? In a word, leave.
For two hours at Thursday’s unofficial meeting of the Community Housing Board, outrage ensued as speaker after speaker explained to Kohn why they believe the Town ought to pursue community housing.
[UPDATE: On Tuesday, the Town Board voted to remove Kohn from the Community Housing Board. He protested the decision. Find more in this post. ]
There was a raucous energy in the room — word had been spreading all day on social media and through email of “an important meeting in support of affordable housing.” While decorum was generally maintained, boundaries did break down.
Some of those in attendance disparaged Kohn. But he engaged in disrespectful behavior, too, making snide remarks and interrupting members of the pubic who’d been invited to speak. He subjected some to churlish cross-examination while he ignored others, choosing instead to interact with his mobile phone.
Importantly, when pressed to give a definition of community, he said, “It’s bull. It’s bullshit.”
Can the housing board even meet?
Set quickly aside was the question of whether the housing board, down to just two of five members, could even meet (Peter McCracken resigned a week ago, shortly after Mike Bebon left both the CHB and Town Board).
Kohn, who became active in Town issues last year when he disputed the design of a structure proposed near his Ram Island home, has argued that a quorum is half the current members. Supervisor Gerry Siller, the Town Board, the Town Attorney and Cris DiOrio (who currently is the only other member of the CHB) disagreed, ruling that no quorum was possible with just two members.
But Kohn was determined to hold forth, and DiOrio, who sat at the meeting room dais along with Siller, Deputy Supervisor Amber Brach-Williams and Clerk Jane Roberts, agreed to let the gathering proceed. Siller said the Town permitted it “as a courtesy to the public.”
Kohn had prepared an agenda that included “Status of Assembly Bill 2633.” Since he credits this bill with prompting his big idea about housing here, let’s take a look.
Proposed Community Housing Fund
The bill was authored in the Assembly by our elected representative, Fred W. Thiele Jr. A state Senate version was authored by our elected representative Anthony R. Palumbo. According to the bill, their reasons for putting it forth are:
- An adequate supply of housing opportunities for all segments of the Peconic Bay community is critical to the future of the Peconic Bay region
- The adverse impact resulting from the lack of housing opportunities is severe
- Local employers have difficulty hiring and retaining employees because of housing costs and availability Local volunteer emergency services agencies experience difficulty in recruitment and retention
- Long-time residents are forced to leave the area
- Traffic congestion is intensified by the importation of labor from areas with lower housing costs
- The lack of housing opportunities is resulting in residents being forced to live in substandard, illegal conditions.
“The unique demographics and economics in the Peconic Bay region and a lack of affordable dwelling units are contributing to this housing shortage,” the act says. “The combination of the Peconic Bay region’s attractiveness, proximity to the dense population of the New York metropolitan region and to that region’s extraordinary wealth, makes the Peconic Bay region a prime location for seasonal and luxury homes.”
“While this combination of extraordinary attractiveness, population density, and wealth has created a strong local economy for the Peconic Bay region, it has resulted in a housing crisis for local families.”
- The demand for seasonal homes has driven up housing costs for local families
- More than 40 percent of all housing units are seasonal
- The housing shortage has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic which spurred increased demand
- The demand for housing in the region is currently at an all-time high
- This increased demand has further driven up housing costs and has reduced the supply of housing
- units available for the local workforce
“The increased demand for affordable housing opportunities resulting from the pandemic makes the need for increased community housing more acute,” the bill says.
How would it work?
If approved by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, the bill authorizes each of the five East End towns to establish its own Community Housing Fund following mandatory public referendums
[Note: In 2019, Cuomo vetoed a nearly identical measure, but in October 2021, Governor Kathy Hochul signed the act into law.]
Like the Community Preservation Fund (which Thiele also authored), the fund would be supported by a real estate transfer tax paid by the buyer of a property, with certain exemptions in place to protect some first-time buyers and buyers of lower-cost homes and vacant lots.
If voters support establishing a fund, the town would enact a Community Housing Plan and establish a Town Board-appointed advisory board. Once in place, the fund would receive proceeds of the real estate transfer tax, as well as additional monies that the Town Board may provide, such as federal and state housing grants.
Resources of a town’s Community Housing Fund could be tapped for a variety of affordable housing programs:
- Provide financial assistance to first-time homebuyers not to exceed 50% of the purchase price
- The production of community housing for sale
- The production of community housing for rent
- Rehabilitation of existing buildings for community housing
- Housing counseling
- The acquisition of real property in existing housing units to result in the production of community housing for sale or rent
The proposed law would add one-half of one percent to the existing two percent real estate transfer tax that supports the Community Preservation Fund. It would increase the exemption on the transfer tax for improved property from $250,000 to $400,000 in the Towns of East Hampton, Southampton, and Shelter Island (from $150,000 to $200,000 in Southold and Riverhead).
Some first-time homebuyers are exempt from paying the current real estate transfer tax; under the proposed law, the exemption in the towns of East Hampton, Southampton, and Shelter Island would rise from 120 percent to 150 percent of the purchase price limit as defined by the state of New York mortgage agency.
Assertions and what the survey never said
Under the guise of presenting an “update” about this state legislation, Kohn, who was a copyright and intellectual property attorney in California before retiring to Shelter Island, shared a slideshow outlining his opinions relating to the proposed law.
Asserting that “affordable housing by definition is high-density housing” and citing studies that high nitrates in drinking water are associated with certain cancers, he seemed to suggest a relationship between affordable housing and the potential for a higher incidence of certain cancers. He claimed Shelter Island would never have the resources to adequately protect its water quality and quantity and also offer community housing.
Kohn misrepresented — as many others have done before him — responses to an amateur survey that was conducted in the early stages of the Town’s now stalled Comprehensive Plan Update. One question on the amateur SurveyMonkey poll asked respondents to rate how important various topics were “to you and your family.”
In polling, there’s an important difference between rating and ranking. Rating — typically assessed by asking respondents to select from a range of sentiments such as strongly agree to strongly disagree — produces qualitative data. Responses to rating questions tell you roughly how people feel about each thing.
Ranking — typically assessed by asking respondents to number a fixed group of items in order of importance — produces quantitative data. When ranking is employed, the result can accurately be reported that some percentage of respondents ranked one item as most important.
But in this survey, respondents were not asked to rank the importance of water quality in comparison to affordable housing or to any of the other topics. They were asked to rate to what degree the issue was important “to you and your family.” The items simply were not presented in what Kohn described as “a tradeoff” in which “water wins by a wide margin.”
What’s more, the Comprehensive Plan Update survey used a “convenience sample,” a non-probability polling method that obtains responses from people who are available and willing to participate. The consultants warned against using the survey results to extrapolate general attitudes held by Islanders.
In their draft survey report, they stated, “there is no adequate baseline of demographic data for comparison. This suggests that we be cautious in using the survey data to draw conclusions about the opinions of Shelter Islanders overall.”
That didn’t stop Kohn from stating that “there’s little support for government involvement” in affordable housing. To augment this claim, he said he’s been “talking to a lot of people in this town” and was speaking on behalf of hundreds of people, a “silent majority” of Islanders opposed to community housing.
In the lead-up to Kohn’s absurd suggestion that the best way to solve our community’s housing problem is to foist it upon neighboring towns, he cited protection of the Island’s senior population as a reason to reject community housing — claiming without any evidence that older residents may be “driven from their homes” by rising taxes if such housing is allowed.
Supervisor Siller and others countered that sharp rises in costs will certainly occur if the Town loses its resident workforce and must employ professionals to provide requisite emergency medical and fire protection services now supplied by volunteers.
Kohn roughly estimated that Shelter Island could expect to raise $1.3 million per year for the new fund, an amount he dismissed, saying it “pales in comparison” to what might be raised in the other towns. In reality, this level of funding would go a very long way to bring to fruition meaningful housing relief on Shelter Island.
A resolution falls flat
“The best outcome,” Kohn said, “is for other towns to vote yes and for Shelter Island to vote no. Our affordable housing needs would be constructed in nearby towns that don’t have the water supply and quality issues that we have.”
Toward that end, Kohn read aloud a resolution he’d drafted: “The Community Housing Board hereby recommends that the Town Board urge our residents to cast a ‘no’ vote on any Town referendum to increase taxes for public housing or subsidizing housing on Shelter Island.”
“Do I have a second,” he asked.
“No, you do not,” DiOrio said.
“I think it’s really, really awful that you are doing this, Bob. I think you’re gravely mistaken about what the idea of community means, and it’s honestly pretty offensive that you’re here trying to act like what you’re doing is fine.”
“It’s fine that you don’t want to spend money,” said DiOrio. “I get that. But don’t act like you care about what’s best for the community.”
DiOrio, who grew up on Shelter Island, acknowledged that others might agree with Kohn but said he doubted that Kohn represented a majority view. During the last two Town Board elections, all candidates agreed that water and affordable housing were issues of critical importance, he said.
“I don’t understand why you’re here, other than you’re trying to ruin the things that we’re working towards,” DiOrio said. “I really wish that you would stop being part of this board.”
What’s your definition of community?
Siller, who has said Kohn misrepresented himself when he applied for the position on the housing board six months ago, spoke next. He reiterated his position that working toward a solution for community housing “is the number one priority of this Town.”
“We’re looking for our cops and our teachers and our landscapers to be able to stay on this Island,” Siller said. “If we lose our community housing, we’re going to have a paid fire department, EMS, and all paid services because no one is going to be able to afford to live here. So your taxes will go up, but not for the reasons he’s saying.”
He invited Kohn to define what community means to him but was interrupted by Kim Bonstrom, a neighbor of Kohn, who asked Siller to describe housing plans in the works.
Siller said the Town is in discussions with the Suffolk County Department of Health Services about a proposal for four homes on an acre of Town-owned land on Manwaring Road.
“We’re going to put four houses there. The Town will own the land. People will own those houses,” he said. “We’ll put the well and septic on the land we bought for the nursery property. It’s preserved property, but we’re allowed to put the well and septic on there. There’s your density there, but we’re offsetting it with 17 acres adjacent to it.”
These houses would be built at no cost to the Town, which already owns the land. Structures would be built by private contractors. Homebuyers would pay about $200,000 for each of the new houses.
At the old Highway Barn, the Town owns another 4 acres. “We’re currently having that tested to make sure that’s safe,” he said. “There, we’ll put up multiple dwellings for rentals. The Town will own the land. Someone will come in and build the structures. It’ll be affordable housing rentals.”
“Once we get those two projects done, I’ve been in the process of talking to people, getting some people that are like the old people on Shelter Island who cared about Shelter Island and found ways to fund things on Shelter Island, and we’ll put together a coalition.”
“And once we show that we can do these projects, we’ll buy more land, and we’ll keep doing the same thing. That’s my plan.”
Again, Siller pressed Kohn to say what community means to him, but Kohn insisted that Siller do so instead.
“A community is all walks of life. Right now, we have senior citizens. We have young families. We have retirees. We have second homeowners. We have working families in between. And we all get along together and we all work well together. That’s community, Bob.”
“But at the end of the day,” Kohn said, “there’s going to be an individual who you sell that house to. There’s going to be an individual who you rent that house to.”
“Yes,” Siller replied. “And he’s going to be part of our community.”
Siller again asked Kohn to explain his view of community. “What’s a community?”
“It’s bull,” Kohn said. “It’s bullshit.”
The crowd responded with shocked exclamations and laughter.
“There’s only individuals,” Kohn said, raising his voice to be heard. “There’s only individuals. You cannot put a community in a house. You can’t sell a house to a community.”
People who show up when you call 911
Gina Kraus, the first attendee to speak at the microphone set up for public comments, strongly rejected this characterization.
“I don’t know you, and you don’t know me,” she said to Kohn. “But I’m well aware of Cris, who’s been working on this committee for over four years. “
Kraus said she participated in CHB visits to community housing projects in the Town of East Hampton, Montauk, Amagansett, and Southold.
“The one thing that every individual on those committees said is that they were going to take care of the people who worked and lived in their community,” she said. “I suggest that you go visit those community housing developments. They are pristine. They are beautiful.”
“And the people who live in them are the people who show up at your house when you call 911. They’re the people who show up when you have a fire in your house. They’re the people who are teaching your children. They’re the people who are coming to unclog your toilet. They’re the people who go to the food pantry and fill the shelves.”
“Those are the people who live in this community,” she said. “Those are the people who need housing in this community.”
Kraus said her son, who owns a plumbing company, can’t afford the $800,000 price tag on a “starter home” here; affordable year-round rentals are a thing of the past.
“[These are] people who live here, who love this place, who work damned hard to be part of this community,” she said. “I’ve been here for over 35 years. And I give to this community, and I graciously accept what this community gives back.”
“You’re a professional; act like one,” she said. “Why did you join this committee?”
“I joined this committee to come up with out-of-the-box thinking to solve the working housing problem on this Island,” Kohn said, noting that when he was 20, he couldn’t afford to live here either. “I have come up with a solution that doesn’t cost anything to any resident.”
Kohn accused the Town Board of refusing to acknowledge data about the housing need and creating “focus groups of people who can’t afford housing to say they need housing,” but Kraus ignored him.
“This committee has worked very hard to get to the point where they have a site, they have the possibility of beginning to bring housing into a place that needs it desperately,” she said. “Maybe you don’t feel the need, but it is a very big need.”
Kohn belittled the Manwaring Road proposal, saying it was a lot of effort to provide homes for just four families.
“If it was just one family, it would be worth it,” Kraus said to applause.
“Slippery slope,” Kohn said. “Then anyone who says they need a house gets a house.”
‘Needs that are not being met’
Margaret Larsen, a member of the Planning Board and Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee, is the Republican candidate for an open seat on the Town Board in the November election due to Albert Dickson’s retirement. (Note: The Island’s political parties are awaiting a ruling by the County Board of Elections to say how they’ll handle filling the seat vacated by Bebon’s resgination.)
Larsen took issue with Kohn’s characterization that planners inappropriately arranged focus group discussions.
“The takeaway I had from that survey was very different from the one you seem to have come away with,” she said.
The survey’s self-reported demographics revealed absences of certain age groups, and that the Island’s Hispanic population had not been reached. “We realized we’re missing whole groups of people. We’re missing Spanish-speaking people, we’re missing young families who are too busy and don’t have the time to fill out this multipage survey, we’re missing working families — people who are trying to run their small businesses in order to afford to stay here.”
Committee members followed up with various groups who hadn’t taken part in order to include them in the planning process.
“That’s why we went out and started talking to community members,” she said. “Not because we felt that the survey didn’t give us what we wanted.”
“You didn’t like the numbers,” Kohn said.
“No, that’s not the point,” she said. “What we took away from this is that there are needs that are not being met on the Island.”
“There are always needs not being met,” Kohn said.
Larsen, who works for her family’s sand and gravel business that installs septic systems, said Kohn was also mistaken in associating newly constructed housing units with deteriorating water quality.
“You think that new housing is going to be detrimental to the aquifer,” she said. “Every existing home on this Island that hasn’t upgraded their septic system is more detrimental than any new structure is going to be.”
A Town tenant
Virginia Gerardi pointed out to Kohn that Shelter Island is already in the “housing business”; she’s a tenant of the Town-owned house between Town Hall and the police station.
“The other towns, they all manage rentals units. It’s not an impossibility.”
Gerardi, who provides office support at Sylvester Manor Educational Farm, said community housing schemes employ a wide range of options, such as co-housing, where tenants share certain facilities, reducing the size of homes. And she pushed back on the stereotype of tenants as spongers.
“I know my neighbors,” she said. “We never missed a beat throughout this entire crisis.”
She lived in the house for 12 years before the Town purchased the building, and for 11 of them was on a month-to-month agreement, “paying my rent on time every month and working here. I’m one of those people that would love to see this housing built.”
Another definition of community
“Community is a group of individuals who come from all different backgrounds who are united in one thing, and that is they care about the commonweal,” writer Maria Magenti said. “The commonweal is all of us together.”
“I don’t just care about housing for me in my house, I care about housing for everybody I interact with here on this Island,” she said. “Community is not the same as thinking just about you.”
Magenti said that when she purchased her small farmhouse on North Menantic Road it was “affordable housing.”
“When I moved here the majority of the Island was affordable housing,” she said. “It’s not so simple as saying ‘Well, when I was 21,’ you know, those days are long gone.”
“I don’t mind paying I can’t tell you how many more taxes,” she said. “Because I want to live in a community where everybody is safe and everybody can work.”
A testy exchange
Councilman Jim Colligan, a veteran and retired teacher, said the school is at the heart of the community.
“If you’ve never gone to a musical, if you’ve never gone to a game, if you’ve never seen the cross-country team run up at the hill, if you’ve never gone to a science fair, if you’ve never sat in on a graduation …”
Kohn interrupted him saying: “Point of order. Is this a political speech?”
“I gave you your time,” Colligan said. “Don’t tell me when I can finish, or you and I will go outside and finish. If you value the EMS, if you value the men and women in our Fire Department, you know the need to have young families on this Island.”
Colligan said one of the “beauties” of COVID was having so many families hunkered down on the Island. “Turning our backs on young people and families is not only an embarrassment, it’s not acceptable.”
As folks in the room clapped and Colligan stepped away from the podium, Kohn called out, “Jim, you can dish it out but you can’t take it, can you.”
“Listen, you want to dish it out, let’s go,” Colligan said, but heeded the counsel of those in the audience to ignore Kohn’s provocation.
‘A lot more than you’ll ever earn’
DiOrio’s partner, Kelci McIntosh, spoke about the urgency of the need here. The couple grow produce and flowers at their Island Time Farm. Like others in their early 30s, they augment their income with numerous odd jobs, and find time to contribute to the community as volunteers, she said.
“I’ve never lived in a town this amazing,” McIntosh said, with her characteristic exuberance.
Despite their hard work, she said she can’t envision a future here that might include homeownership, or raising a family.
McIntosh candidly shared details of personal struggles to make ends meet while running the farm, and the despair she sometimes feels when apparently well-off patrons question the $20 price of the bouquets she sells at the farmer’s market.
Kohn, who appeared to enjoy goading her, asked: “So you’re expecting to get one of these houses?”
“I would love to get one of those houses,” she said.
“I would like to have a house, too,” Kohn said.
“You have a house,” McIntosh said.
“Okay, my daughter doesn’t have a house,” he said.
“Great, so let’s make it affordable housing,” she said.
“If you were destitute,” Kohn said, “and you couldn’t survive because for some reason you couldn’t help yourself, we have a moral and legal obligation to make sure that you are sustained enough to live a decent life. But you gotta draw the line somewhere.”
“You do not want affordable housing because you don’t think poor people deserve it,” McIntosh said.
“That’s not true,” Kohn replied. “These are not poor people. Policemen are not poor people. The average salary here is $125,000.”
“And they can’t afford to buy a house,” Siller interjected.
“So now we’re going to support people with the things that they want when they earn $125,000 a year, a lot more than you’ll ever earn,” Kohn said.
Problem not unique to Shelter Island
Gary Blados pointed out that East End communities that have housing programs reserve spots for their first responders as a way to retain them. “This is not a problem that’s unique to Shelter Island.”
He asked Kohn to name the community leaders in other towns he’s reached out to who “think this plan is a good idea, that support your plan.”
Kohn said he watched a Town of Southold presentation in which the Town Supervisor said “he doesn’t want to get that town involved in creating housing.”
“For the people of Southold?” Blados asked.
“Yes, for the people of Southold,” Kohn replied.
“So why is he going to create housing for the people of Shelter Island?” Blados asked.
Kohn said the problem in Southold was people didn’t want affordable housing in residential neighborhoods. NIMBYism — it turns out — also happens in Southold. Blados asked Kohn if has a backup plan.
“The market is going to take care of this,” Kohn replied and launched into a discourse about the “endless set of problems with public housing that goes back to the 1950s. It’s the same old thing. It’s unintended consequences …”
Among the certain consequences of shipping workers off-Island would be loss of school-age children, Blados said. “You’re going to have the school collapse in on itself because you’re not going to have enough young families here.”
“That might not be a bad thing,” Kohn said, citing high per pupil costs and airily proposing a phony solution of issuing $60,000 private school vouchers to any remaining resident students.
“That’s not realistic,” Blados said. “We have a realistic problem right in front of us. Moving people off the Island is not the solution.”
Kohn asked for a show of hands of people assembled: “Who lives on the Island but can’t afford to live here? If you’re living here, you can afford to live here.”
A school teacher responds
Nell Lowell, a school teacher who in summers upholds a tradition begun by her grandfather to provide swimming instruction to Islanders, spoke about multi-generational struggles to maintain connections to this community.
“It’s not all about young people,” she said. “My Mom is 73 years old and would like to come back to the Island where she was born. She was a nurse for over 30 years, but even with her pension, she can’t afford to come back to the home where she was born.”
“Going to another town won’t work,” said Lowell, who teaches in the Sag Harbor School District. She was on the affordable housing list in East Hampton for about 15 years. “It didn’t work. If you think that that’s the answer, it’s not.”
Referring to six homes along Menantic and Bowditch roads that were built in a path to ownership project here in the mid-1990s, Lowell said, “You don’t like the idea of affordable housing, but it’s already happened here once.”
While some have criticized that project for not requiring owners to sell at below-market rates, Lowell noted that future schemes could contain such provisions. Just one of the homes has sold, Siller said, and that was after 25 years of ownership.
“That’s not a failure,” Lowell said. “And in none of those houses would anyone say I don’t want to live next door to those people. Would you want to live next door to me? I want to live next door to you!”
Kohn patronizingly suggested that those who present themselves as candidates for affordable housing may not understand what’s in their own best interests.
“You’re locking people into a situation that’s not good for them,” he said.
“I would rather be locked into that than be in the situation that I’m in now,” said Lowell. “I’ve been holding out hope for 25 years.”
“For what?” Kohn asked.
“To be able to afford a house on this Island,” Lowell replied. “And I just miss the mark every time. “
Lowell, who attended the meeting with her husband, David, and son Luke (their daughter Libby joined via Zoom), said she and other members of her family have always made time to support the community.
“I don’t do these things to ‘get a house’,” she said. “I love being part of the community.”
While, “housing is unreachable,” she said, “we have a plan. And I believe in Gerry and I believe in the plan.”
Lowell also pushed back on the idea that high density is something new to Shelter Island, citing Smith Street as an example.
“I can throw a rock and hit the house next to mine,” she said. “We’re not building a high rise.”
“What would you think if they did build these houses and you didn’t get chosen?” Kohn asked.
But before she could answer, others interjected saying, “that’s not fair. “
He shouted over them. “It’s not going to solve your problem,” he said, of the Town’s plan. “It’s ripe for corruption. It’s ripe for all kinds of problems.”
Lowell said that whether or not she’d end up being eligible for such a house, she’d gladly offer her perspective. “I will sit with the board and help you decide the criteria.”
Deputy Supervisor Amber Brach-Williams weighed in, to point out that when the Town adds housing stock, that frees up a like number of units for others.
“I hate sharing personal details about myself, but a year and a half ago, I thought I was going to need to resign from the Town Board because I was not finding anything on Shelter Island and was going to have to move off-Island,” she said.
Housing insecurity can arise as a result of unexpected changes in circumstances, she said, using her example of divorce. “It’s not just young families. It’s not just seniors.”
Develop Mashomack to revive a ‘dying community’
Many other people spoke, including some of the 30 or so Zoom participants such as Sherri Cavasini, Michael Shatken and Gordon Gooding.
John Woodward, another neighbor of Kohn’s and friend was present at Town Hall; he described Shelter Island as “a dying community.”
“I think it’s not us against them, I don’t think it’s rich versus poor,” he said. “I think we’re trying to work on a practical solution to a real problem. And that is affordability for people to come and be on the Island.”
“This is, to me, is a dying community, and we have to make a decision about how can we rejuvenate it,” he said. Woodward described the 2,039-acre Mashomack Preserve as a pet peeve. “This Island needs critical mass. It needs more people. It needs more housing. It needs more lots. To fill up the schools to have volunteers”
He proposed that the Town “bid on” The Nature Conservancy property and develop the land with a combination of 10-, 2- and 1-acre parcels “so we can get critical mass in this Town.”
Among its many benefits, Siller pointed out that the preserve, which covers about one third of the Island, contributes enormously to maintaining water quality and quantity here. “Mashomack protects the major aquifer of Shelter Island.”
“I want to develop it so that the Town goes from being a dying community to being sustainable, with more people,” Woodward said. “I know that the affordable housing that you are putting forth is a band-aid.”
Suffice it to say, this idea didn’t gain much traction.
What’s the argument for not helping others?
But it was Scott Overstreet, a South Ferry employee whose wife works at the Chase Bank branch, who got to the heart of the issue when he stepped up to ask Kohn, “What’s the argument for not helping others?”
Kohn responded that anyone can choose to help others, suggesting that former Councilman Bebon who is leaving the Island could sell his home at below market cost “to any one of you. That his choice. It’s his house.”
“You’re an idiot,” Siller said.
“I want an explanation,” Overstreet said.
“I’m trying to help the community,” Kohn said. “You can’t take people’s money and give it somebody else for no good reason … you don’t have a moral obligation to help somebody else who can help themself just because they want to live where they want to live.”
“You’re missing it,” Overstreet said. “You’re not listening…”
“But you want to live here,” Kohn shot back, “so I have to pay for it and the old man down the street that loses his house …”
None of the envisioned schemes offers free housing, and Overstreet rightly cut Kohn off to say, “I’m not asking you to pay for nothing. If you don’t want to help when everyone else does, why don’t you go someplace else?”
“I’m a liaison for hundreds of people on this Island who agree with me,” Kohn said.
“So where are they,” Overstreet asked. “We’re all here together. Where are all of your people?”
“Sir, I think if you would just stop and think,” he said. “If we don’t help the people in the community and have some of affordable housing, we’re going to slowly lose our fire department, our EMTs, our ferry workers — and I’m one of them. We’re going to have to leave.”
“This is a fact of life,” Kohn responded, insisting that other people, “replacements”, will show up to do the work of those who depart. When pressed to explain where they’d come from, he said, “They’re here now. You’re here now.”
Kohn insisted that housing will be built, especially if the state legislation passes.
“That’s what we’re trying to do here,” Overstreet said.
“I’m trying to protect the individual homeowners in this town from being subject to the abuse of people who want to feel better by helping somebody else,” Kohn said.
‘Kick this guy off the Community Housing Board’
At last, DiOrio directly addressed the elephant in the room.
“Why are you on the Community Housing Board when you’re clearly opposed to the Town doing anything about community housing,” DiOrio asked. Then he pointed around the room to members of the Town Board.
“You two,” he said to Siller and Brach-Williams, “and Jim and Albert gotta kick this guy off the Community Housing Board. Bob Kohn is not an appropriate member of the Community Housing Board and I think he has proven that tonight, without a doubt whatsoever.”
Siller said he’s already raised the matter with Town Board members and they’re considering options. Kohn returned to a theme that since the Town Board can reject the recommendations of its advisory committees, why not be open to “diversity of opinion.”
Kohn said he didn’t even know what the Community Housing Board was when he was “asked to be on it by the association.” Siller pressed him to say which “association” he was referring to, but Kohn refused to say.
Moving on, Siller addressed concerns expressed about the Town’s first community housing effort.
“We really didn’t make a mistake on Bowditch Road,” Siller said. “The Town provided six affordable houses to six families and first house just sold 25 years after the fact. Six families lived here for 25 years, five of them still do. They raised their families here, they paid taxes here, they’re firemen, they’re ambulance drivers, they’re ferry workers, they work at the school, they are 100 percent part of this community.”
“They have equity in their homes,” he said. “The original deal was, if you sell within the first 10 years, you get a percentage of that. They were here for 25 years. They’re entitled to that equity.”
“It was not a mistake,” Siller said. “It was the only project this Town did and it was probably the most successful project of any town on the East End.”
“Moving forward we know what we have to do to keep houses in the affordable range.”
The home that recently sold, Siller said, “just illustrates the point even more. If an ‘affordable house’ goes for $850,000, what does that tell you.”
