The Town Board has arranged a Town Hall Meeting for residents to ask about Community Housing.
Be an informed participant; read the draft Community Housing Plan. Find it with this link to the Town website.
The meeting takes place on Saturday, October 15, from 3 to 5 PM in the Shelter Island School auditorium. It features Town Board and Community Housing Board members and our NYS Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr.
The Town will live-stream the event on its YouTube channel and later post it to Channel 22 and the Town website.
Community Housing Plan
The Community Housing Fund Advisory Board, in coordination with the Town Board and the consulting firm Nelson Pope Voorhis, wrote the draft plan.
It adheres to requirements set out in the Peconic Bay Region Community Housing Fund Act, which was signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul last October.
It allows Suffolk County’s five East End towns to each create a dedicated Community Housing Fund. However, towns can expend fund monies only in keeping with a locally-crafted Community Housing Plan. The Shelter Island plan is pending formal adoption by the Town Board after a public hearing on Tuesday, October 18.
The primary source of revenue would be a new 0.5 percent real estate transfer tax paid by purchasers — not the sellers. Voters in each town decide whether to enact the tax. Any monies raised stay within the community. And any housing created with fund revenues must remain affordable for future generations.
Akin to Community Preservation Fund
Assemblyman Thiele is the author of the law. He also wrote the Community Preservation Fund (CPF) legislation. Over 24 years, the CPF has enabled the five East End towns to set aside millions of dollars to purchase open space using a 2 percent real estate transfer tax.
In a recent Community Housing forum, he described the Community Housing Fund as the “sister” of the CPF. “They’re very similar in process and mechanics.”
Before the launch of CPF, towns sought to protect open space to preserve community character but struggled to come up with adequate resources, Thiele said.
The same is true today for housing, which plays a vital role in preserving a community.
“A dedicated fund for affordable housing would allow the towns to do much more in the way of providing housing opportunities than they can now,” he said. “This is not a problem you’re going to solve without resources.”
For more on the September 13 forum, read our post “LWV Community Housing forum addresses’ desperate, critical need’ on East End.”
What does the law allow?
The law gives no new powers to towns; any housing must still comport with all local, county, and state codes. In addition, prospective buyers and tenants must meet income eligibility limits issued annually by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Other terms, like “first-time homebuyers,” have well-established legal definitions — local officials aren’t simply making them up. For example, when providing homes for purchase, the law defines “Community Housing” as: “a primary residential property for an eligible individual that does not exceed 150 percent of purchase price limits established by the State of New York Mortgage Agency (SONYMA) low-interest loan program in non-target categories for Suffolk County in effect on the contract date for the sale of such property.”
Under state law, a town could use its Community Housing Fund for the:
- provision of financial assistance for first-time homebuyers
- production of Community Housing for sale to eligible individuals by the town or in a public/private partnership
- production and maintenance of Community Housing for rent to eligible individuals by the town or in a public/private partnership
- rehabilitation of existing buildings and structures in the town for conversion to Community Housing for sale or rental to eligible individuals
- acquisition of real property interests in existing housing units for sale or rental to eligible individuals
- provision of housing counseling services by a HUD-authorized nonprofit
Shelter Island’s plan
In keeping with the new law, the Shelter Island Town Board set up a Community Housing Fund and created a Community Housing Fund Advisory Board to superintend the development of the local Community Housing Plan.
Described “as a roadmap for implementing Community Housing goals,” it will become part of the town’s Comprehensive Plan, currently under review. The plan will guide decision-making regardless of whether voters endorse the 0.5 percent real estate transfer tax.
It sets these goals:
- Provide affordable housing opportunities for Islanders at economic levels not currently available in the housing market
- Create quality housing that aligns with the architectural context and heritage of the Island
- Build and design housing following best practices and principles of sustainable building design and site development, minimizing impact upon the natural resources of the Island
- Develop and manage housing projects in a manner that fully respects our residents
- Providing a variety of housing types and options that remain affordable in perpetuity
- Mitigate population loss and grow the percentage of year-round resident workers in all fields, including teachers, first responders, and essential service providers
- Increase the overall percentage of year-round residents on the Island to support the vitality of our community, the availability of retail services in the off-season, and support the year-round Island businesses
- Develop housing that comports with Smart Growth initiatives enhancing the livability and vitality of Shelter Island — i.e., locate development in areas where transportation, infrastructure, and resources are already present
An overriding priority is that Community Housing “is at a scale appropriate for Shelter Island, respecting the Island’s existing character and the sensitivities of its residents.”
“Any future community housing must be able to integrate seamlessly into the existing development landscape.”
Gathering input
Nelson Pope Voorhis conducted a needs assessment based on U.S. Census data and the American Community Survey (ACS) estimates. The consultants said trends in housing costs as a percentage of income — the cost burden — indicate severe stress on local renters.
In 2000, 19 percent of renters reported spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing; by 2010, the ACS estimate jumped to 70 percent, and by 2020 to 100 percent.
The plan also incorporates community feedback gathered at open house sessions, from input at meetings, and in a survey about the types of Community Housing that might best suit Shelter Island.
The survey employed what’s known as a convenience sampling method — anyone who knew about it or came across it could respond. But it wasn’t structured to be representative of the community. So while responses from the 159 participants provide a sense of what’s on people’s minds, the answers aren’t representative of the population as a whole.
(Note: The same is true for a Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee survey that used a similar nonprobability method last year — the results are anecdotal.)
You can read more about the development of the Community Housing Plan in this September 8 Gazette post: “Community Housing needs assessment: all year-round renters face outsized cost burdens.”
Voters in each town decide
On the ballot in this November’s general election is a public referendum asking voters to decide on the 0.5 percent real estate transfer tax.
Certain transactions have long been exempt from the 2 percent CPF transfer tax to protect homebuyers at the housing market’s lower end. If voters approve the additional 0.5 percent for Community Housing, the exemption levels will rise to beef up protections at the lower end of the market.
Currently, the first $250,000 of a home’s value is exempt from the 2 percent transfer tax. However, if voters agree to add the 0.5 percent for Community Housing, the exemption rises — the first $400,000 of a home’s value would be exempt.
Income-eligible first-time homebuyers are exempt from transfer taxes provided the purchase is within 150 percent of the SONYMA’s price limits. There are no exemptions for homes over $2M.
Here’s a comparison:
| Purchase Price | Existing CPF | Proposed CPF + 0.5 |
| $600K | $7,000 | $5,000 |
| $700K | $9,000 | $7,500 |
| $800K | $11,000 | $10,000 |
| $900K | $13,000 | $12,500 |
| $1M | $15,000 | $15,000 |
| $1.5M | $25,000 | $27,500 |
| $2M | $35,000 | $50,000 |
| $4M | $75,000 | $100,000 |
| $5M | $95,000 | $125,000 |
Voters in four East End towns will decide separately whether their towns should use this new funding tool to address the long-simmering regional housing crisis. It only became more acute — Thiele described it as a “desperate, critical need” — due to pandemic-induced buying.
The Town of Riverhead opted not to pursue the transfer tax at this time. However, it may later choose to do so. Likewise, a town board can try again to win community support if the measure is voted down.
How to participate
All are welcome to attend the Town Hall meeting; to participate, you may submit questions in advance to the Community Housing Board clerk, Coco Lee Thuman, at cthuman@shelterislandtown.us.
