Lift The Limit

One of the biggest hang-ups homeowners have with the existing affordable accessory apartments law in Southampton Town is that only live-in homeowners can qualify for an accessory apartment. This disqualifies many homeowners — and explains why the program is so underused.

As both Southampton and East Hampton towns, and Sag Harbor Village, and other municipalities begin to look at ways to expand affordable housing, there is a lesson here for everyone.

Adding on an apartment or rearranging the existing space in a home to create an apartment creates an opportunity for homeowners to earn a little money to help them stay local, while also providing an affordable unit to an income-qualified tenant. But what if the homeowners want to rent out their house to someone else now and then and still have an accessory apartment? They can’t.

Summer and short-term rentals are prohibited under the accessory apartment law. Naturally, affordable units should never be sublet this way — it would undermine the whole purpose of the program. But why are homeowners prohibited from renting out the main portion of the house for part or all of the year?

Yes, the town wants to afford this opportunity to homeowners who will remain here and work here year-round. But why not afford the same opportunity to the second-home owner who only uses the home for part of the year? Why not extend the option to the local retiree who wants to spend winters in Florida or the Carolinas and return to Southampton Town in the summer?

Even homeowners who plan to be year-round locals for the foreseeable future hesitate to use the affordable accessory apartment law because they want to maintain the flexibility in the future to rent their homes out, if only for a portion of the year. (The IRS allows a homeowner to rent a house out, tax free, for up to two weeks a year.)

The affordable housing crisis in Southampton Town is too severe to be so limiting. Every little restriction on the affordable accessory apartment law is costing the town affordable units, and that’s a cost Southampton can’t afford — and a mistake other municipalities should take care not to make.