Allow homeowners to offer legal rentals
Long Islanders pay more of their overall income to housing costs than either the state or national average, census data shows. Credit: Newsday/John Keating
Homeowners can offer affordable housing
As championed by Long Island urban planner Lee Koppelman, every homeowner should be allowed to have one legal rental apartment that follows all local laws and requirements [“Priced out of living on Long Island,” LI Business, March 16]. This extra income would allow senior homeowners to stay on Long Island and pay their taxes while increasing affordable and safe rental housing for our youth and newlyweds.
This program should be voluntary, possibly with federal and state incentives. Of course, we would need to enforce one family per rental. A rental for $1,000 to $2,000 per month would be wonderful. We want our children and grandchildren to enjoy Long Island as much as we do.
— Alan H. Cohn, Nesconset
Full fault for the lack of affordable housing lies with our elected officials. They continue to approve high-rent luxury projects, which most middle-class people find difficult to afford. One developer has advertised over 150 developments on Long Island, all of them high end with multiple amenities.
What we need is basic rentals most can afford. New construction supposedly includes a percentage of affordable housing, but who checks this? After a few years, do they still keep them affordable?
— Terry McPherson, Bellmore
Bad district action in bullying of twins
Shame on the Patchogue-Medford School District [“Lawsuit: Kids endured bullying,” News, March 19].
The district head of human resources told a parent, who was a district food service worker, that she had to choose between being a parent of her bullied twins or a district employee. That is wrong on every level.
Three generations of my family attended and worked for the Great Neck School District. Employees and students could be together, and it made good memories.
If an issue came up and we had to put our parental duties first, we were treated with respect by all. Our jobs never gave us a leg up nor were they ever in jeopardy whether it was in a child’s defense or speaking up at a district board meeting.
— Joan Lazaunik, Great Neck
WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO JOIN OUR DAILY CONVERSATION. Just go to newsday.com/submitaletter and follow the prompts. Or email your opinion to letters@newsday.com. Submissions should be no more than 200 words. Please provide your full name, hometown, phone number and any relevant expertise or affiliation. Include the headline and date of the article you are responding to. Letters become the property of Newsday and are edited for all media. Due to volume, readers are limited to one letter in print every 45 days. Published letters reflect the ratio received on each topic.
