More affordable housing? Sign me up. OPED

In her recent State of the State Address, Governor Kathy Hochul announced her plan to build 800,000 new homes in New York state over the next decade to combat New York’s crisis of expensive homes and outrageous rents.

The plan has come under fire here in Nassau. But honestly?

Affordable housing would be fantastic, and people should give it a second thought. We have in our hands an opportunity to fix every problem that is plaguing our County.

Concerned about crime? Homes closer to each other make it easier for the police to reach you. Worried for the homeless? Cheaper housing means fewer homeless individuals. Anxious that young people are fleeing Nassau? Those young people will stay if the housing was cheaper. Care about the environment?

Excellent, because higher-density housing is more energy-efficient than single-family homes, which also means lower utility bills.

Most importantly, it will drive down the cost of living. Purchasing a home or renting in Nassau is almost impossible in this economy, but more housing supply will

Pro Housing

finally put some pressure on prices to go down.

Not to mention, almost 70% of Long Islanders say we need more affordable housing. So now’s our chance to do it.

Obviously, it’s not all sunshine and vodka. More affordable housing may mean a decrease in property value, for example. But even that may be beneficial: as property value goes down, so too go down property taxes, the bane of all Long Islanders.

There are concerns about whether infrastructure can keep up with the growth in population. After all, no one wants schools to suffer or roads to become congested. But the case is severely overstated.

Hochul’s plan calls for 7,170 to 14,340 new units to be built, an increase of just 1.5 to 3 percent in housing stock. The actual population increase—spread out across Nassau County and over 3 years—will be, in the most extreme case, a 5% increase over the current population.

In addition, the plan would include $270 million to assist municipalities in reaching their targets. The new housing would also swell the tax base and provide new jobs for Nassau businesses struggling to find employment, making any needed infrastructure investment completely doable. Benefits of affordable housing notwithstanding, the biggest reason given by politicians and residents for opposing this plan is that it would disrupt the “suburban way of life.”

To which I respond: Thank God! Soulless neighborhoods with no sign of activity or sense of community; people tensed up around one another; disgusting malls, parking lots, and other hostile and alienating architecture; and having to spend gas and drive to run the smallest errand because everything essential to living is spaced out.

This is the “suburban way of life” you so dearly want to protect? Sounds to me like the suburban way of death. It’s no coincidence that the suicide rate is higher in suburbs than it is in urban areas across the country.

And let’s not pretend that good schools, lawns, or privacy belong exclusively to the suburbs. The best school in Nassau, Jericho High School, is beaten by 32 other schools nationally, the majority of which are in cities. Lawns and community gardens are still possible with denser housing, and with all the private surveillance going up, I wouldn’t vouch for the privacy of the suburbs.

Taken all together, the governor’s housing plan is a good one, and not out of loyalty to the governor. If anything, I think it doesn’t go far enough. I would have liked to see even more housing built, in various different areas so that people of different races and incomes could be integrated.

But the perfect will not be the enemy of the good. The positives of this plan definitely outweigh the negatives, and it is my hope that the proposal is passed so that we may move towards a more moral, affordable, and vibrant Nassau County.

— Matthew Adarichev is a Hofstra University sophomore studying public policy and a student journalist from Westbury.