All Hands on Deck

If there was one lesson learned from the most recent Express Sessions panel discussion on affordable housing last week, it’s that there are no easy solutions to the crisis plaguing the East End.

However, if there was one positive note coming from the conversation, it was that an all-hands-on-deck strategy has the best chance of creating a range of possible approaches to the problem that, if weaved together, may someday lead to a patchwork solution of various remedies to the problem. Like a rope, the strands could combine to create strength.

The event, held on October 12 at The American Hotel in Sag Harbor, explored two recent proposals to provide housing in partnership with local municipalities and institutions. As do all discussions about affordable housing, it quickly evolved into a discussion of the crisis and potential remedies.

The first proposal, floated last year by Tom Gardella, now Sag Harbor Village’s mayor, would see the village build up to a dozen affordable apartments on village-owned property at the current site of the firehouse and ambulance corps headquarters on Brick Kiln Road. Gardella’s vision would be to reserve those apartments for volunteers for the fire department, ambulance company and other organizations.

The second proposal, pitched by Hampton Life magazine owner Kirby Marcantonio, would see a couple of dozen affordable townhouses built on property owned by the East Hampton School District, and targeted for teachers and district employees, or employees of other key businesses.

Both proposals have merit but also are freighted with questions that would have to be answered first, most notably how housing could be reserved for specific groups or employers without violating federal fair housing guidelines. Still, it was encouraging to see new and innovative ideas floated to address the housing dilemma.

Gardella, and Sag Harbor Village officials as a whole, who, it was announced last week, are once again taking a crack at legislation to encourage affordable housing in the village, should be congratulated for suiting up and taking a run at the issue — the only village on the South Fork to do so in a significant way.

Much of the public has become frustrated by the apparent lack of progress, and that’s understandable, even though it seems that steps are being taken, especially with the approval of the Community Housing Fund last year. Patience is the key, of course.

But at the same time, the problem can’t be left to just a few municipal officials to try to solve. As a community, everyone suffers from the dearth of affordable housing, and only as a community, and with innovative ideas like those pitched in East Hampton and Sag Harbor, will it be solved.