Long Island Housing Coalition kicks off discussion series in Glen Cove

The Long Island Housing Coalition, a group of area nonprofits, kicked off a series of discussions about housing on Tuesday at Glen Cove Senior Center, describing the options available for seniors there and the barriers that stand in the way of development. 

The series, called "Housing in Your Hometown," aims to share information about the housing needs of specific communities on Long Island, giving attendees the ability to support the types of housing they would like to see built.

"Housing is very personal and individual and advocacy organizations spend a lot of time trying to convince communities about what they should be doing instead of ... engaging them in a conversation that says, ‘Based on these options what would you all like to see?’ ” said Laura Harding, president of ERASE Racism, a Syosset-based nonprofit that chairs the coalition. 

The nonprofit is interested in holding forums in other Long Island communities next year in partnership with a local organization, Harding said.

Housing development has been a contentious issue on Long Island following Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal last year to build 800,000 housing units across the state in the next decade. The proposal was panned by suburban legislators for allowing the state to override local zoning decisions.

Ian Wilder, executive director of Long Island Housing Services in Bohemia, says the maze of different zoning and building regulations across different towns and villages makes it unattractive and expensive for builders to create new housing. He wants elected officials to make those policies more uniform across jurisdictions.

This year, the governor introduced an incentive-based approach that allowed communities to opt in to qualify for $650 million in state discretionary funding for economic development.

In return, the municipalities commit to sharing data with the state to demonstrate they approved permits to increase the number of housing units in their area by 1% over the past year or 3% in the past three years.

If they can’t show proof of that housing growth, local governments can pass a pro-housing resolution that says they support "housing production of all kinds." 

The City of Glen Cove recently submitted a letter of intent to join the program, Ann S. Fangmann, executive director of the Glen Cove Community Development Agency, said at the event.

Twelve Long Island municipalities have been certified as pro-housing communities, including the towns of Babylon, Brookhaven, East Hampton and Riverhead; the villages of Farmingdale, Freeport, Hempstead, Mineola, Port Washington North, Sag Harbor and Westbury; and the city of Long Beach.

Another 13 places, including Glen Cove, had submitted letters of intent to the state to join the program as of Aug. 9, according to the state’s affordable housing agency.

Housing in Glen Cove

The discussion touched upon Glen Cove’s history, including a federally funded urban renewal effort that started in 1957 to clear buildings on Cecil and School streets, which displaced hundreds of families — many of them Black — said Derek Stein, senior housing policy associate at ERASE Racism.

Glen Cove has fewer homeowners and more renters than Nassau County as a whole, with a homeownership rate of about 57% compared with about 81% countywide, according to 2022 data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Median rent in the city was $3,130 across all apartments in August, according to data Stein cited from Apartments.com, which tracks professionally managed buildings.

Recent developments in the city include developer RXR’s Garvies Point, where nearly 600 of 1,100 proposed units have been built, Fangmann said. The development includes The Green at Garvies Point, a 55-unit complex where rents for one-bedrooms started around $1,500, which opened last year. 

The median sale price of a home in Glen Cove, including houses and condos, was $715,000 in the first half of 2024, according to data provided to Newsday by Manhattan appraisal firm Miller Samuel. That was a 16.3% increase from $615,000 in the first half of 2023.

Beyond new development, several speakers mentioned available funds for seniors to make repairs to their roofs, windows or boilers through the city’s Residential Rehabilitation Program. Several area nonprofits administer home improvement loan programs for residents of other parts of Long Island.

Rona Hicaro-Tubon, a retired nurse who attended the event, said she wanted to hear more specific information about affordable homeownership and available rentals. Hicaro-Tubon, 67, currently lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Glen Cove with her adult son and pays about $3,000, but she would prefer to pay closer to $2,000 a month.

"I’m in a bind right now, but I can’t do anything," she said.

By Jonathan LaMantia

jonathan.lamantia@newsday.com@jonlamantia

Jonathan LaMantia covers residential real estate and other business news on Long Island. He previously covered the business of health care for Crain's New York Business.