[Year-Round Housing Committee] Survey Cover letter with suggested changes.

[Mlongreene2 at aol.com]

I think I have incorporated all of your suggestions into the attached cover  
letter.  Bring any final ideas tomorrow.  Thanks,  Mark
 
 
DRAFT FOR COMMITTEE CONSIDERATION – 
I have tried to incorporate the changes suggested at last meeting  into this 
version.  Please bring  this with an additional suggestions to the Feb.7  
meeting. 
FROM:             The Town of Long Island Year-round Housing  Committee 
TO:                  Long Island  Residents 
SUBJECT:         Housing Interest  Survey 
Enclosed, please find a survey designed to gauge specific interest  
concerning housing issues on Long Island.  We have included one copy of the survey  for 
each person 18 years or older in your household. (FOR YR SURVEY ONLY)  Please 
complete it by( Feb 15?) and  return it in the enclosed stamped envelope. 
(For seasonal survey: “We have  included one copy per household, but feel free to 
add additional comments if  several members of your household have differing 
opinions on  questions.”) 
The Year-round Housing Committee (YRHC) was created to explore  housing 
issues and availability for Long Islanders in the ever-tightening  coastal second 
home real estate market. As has already been experienced by our  sister islands 
up and down the coast, housing is simply becoming unavailable for  young 
people trying to stay in their island communities.   As noted in several past 
articles  in the Long Islander, the Island Times, the Working Waterfront, The 
Governor’s  Annual Housing Conference, and elsewhere, perhaps no issue threatens 
the future  well-being of the year round viability of this community more than 
lack of year  round housing.  Some people who  already live here, including 
young families, with children in school, or those  wishing to have families, may 
not be able to settle or stay here permanently due  to housing issues.   It 
is  possible that many of us that do live here would have trouble re-entering 
this  housing market again if we had to.  Think about what your house may be 
worth and whether you could re-buy it  in today’s market.   
Every person here—young and old—adds to the well-being and healthy  
diversity of the town and in no way is any initial emphasis on helping young  folks to 
stay here meant to detract from those of us “not so young”. The reality  is 
that certain jobs, skills, and energies require younger hands to do  them.  
Our town needs the diversity  that a continuing presence of younger people bring 
to serve on the fire  department, pilot the rescue boat, build buildings, be 
sternmen, care for  children, and carry on all the many activities of the 
community as the rest of  us age!   
The fewer younger hands here, the more we have to hire others from  the 
mainland, the more expensive life here becomes, and perhaps most important  the 
less livable Long Island slowly becomes for  the rest of us.    
The YRHC believes that a modest housing proposal might be a good  beginning 
step to stimulate thinking, interest, and experience in addressing  this issue. 
 Keeping in mind that  the goal is to keep our young people here, preference 
would be to make it  available to such candidates by utilizing grants, low 
cost municipal loans and  any other resources to keep the housing, in whatever 
form it takes, as  affordable as possible.  The word  “affordable housing” is 
commonly used to describe such efforts, but  affordability, while critically 
important, probably in this housing market is  second to simple availability!  
It will be as affordable as  possible.   Other island and  coastal towns have 
completed various kinds of projects; with much advice  available from their 
experiences, good and bad. 
Project possibilities include a spectrum of ideas from helping  eligible 
buyers find financing for year-round homes, increasing rental  possibilities, 
developing some sort of assisted-living programs for our seniors,  to perhaps 
being an agency that can step in and purchase properties that may be  deemed 
affordable to be re-sold to eligible candidates when needed.    
We need to know before more exploratory work is done if we have the  community
’s support to continue.    No matter how much support this idea  receives, 
the obvious needs to be clearly stated:  any funding be it loans or needed  
expenditures of tax monies to move any proposed project forward would clearly  be 
dependent on Town Meeting approval. 
Even though the majority  of our citizens taking this survey do not have 
personal housing needs, your  input is extremely important.  We  ask you to 
consider this a serious community issue that does have solutions if  we act in a 
timely fashion.     Thank you for taking time to  complete this survey.  
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