Suffolk housing crisis: Fix restrictive zoning to spur development and bring down prices

Suffolk County will face a worsening housing crisis unless it can eliminate barriers such as overly restrictive zoning and high costs that slow development and push up prices for houses and rental apartments, affordable housing advocates and builders said on Friday.

About a dozen speakers at a hearing convened by the county's Welfare to Work Commission said efforts to bring down housing costs had been routinely stymied by bureaucratic hurdles and poor infrastructure, as well as community opposition that tied up housing proposals for years, leaving homeownership out of reach for many middle-class Suffolk residents.

"Suffolk County is facing one of the most severe housing crises in its history," Pilar Moya-Mancera, executive director of the Greenlawn nonprofit Housing Help, said at a news conference before the hearing in the county office complex in Hauppauge. "We cannot wait 10 more years for housing solutions."

The Welfare to Work Commission, an advisory board for the Suffolk County Legislature, called the hearing as it prepares a report looking at systemic impediments to developing affordable housing. 

Commission chairman Richard Koubek said before the hearing the average Suffolk resident must make about $218,000 to afford a typical single-family home, or $90,000 to pay $2,000 monthly rent.

But many residents make far less, he said, citing licensed practical nurses who earn an average $57,670 annually and supermarket cashiers who make $39,520 a year.

"This has been a struggle for Long Islanders for years and years," Koubek said.

Some speakers warned of rising homelessness.

The homeless population in Suffolk and Nassau counties grew 13% to 4,500 from January 2024 to January 2025, Greta Guarton, executive director of Amityville-based Long Island Coalition for the Homeless, said at the news conference. About 18% of Long Island's homeless are age 55 and over, she said.

The primary problem is unaffordable housing, speakers said.

Median single-family house prices in Suffolk reached an all-time high of $720,000 in September, Newsday previously reported. Many officials cite bidding wars among customers for driving up prices.

But speakers on Friday said prices also rose to historic levels because development was slowed by cumbersome rules and lack of infrastructure such as sewers. Several pointed to the case of Matinecock Court in East Northport, an affordable housing complex that faced four decades of community opposition and court battles before construction started two years ago.

Mike Florio, chief executive of the Long Island Builders Institute, which represents construction firms, said developers faced different zoning rules in Long Island's 13 towns and dozens of villages. 

"This patchwork of inconsistent laws leads to delay" and "limits the supply of homes," driving up costs for developers and would-be homeowners, Florio said.

Ian Wilder, executive director of Long Island Housing Services, a Bohemia fair housing nonprofit, warned Suffolk would start to lose people if housing continues to be a problem.

"We're going to lose a congressional seat" to an area with more pro-housing policies, Wilder said. Congressional districts are based on population.

Several speakers said developers and affordable housing advocates alike must do a better job working with community leaders to address their concerns about new housing.

Some speakers said municipalities should consider streamlining their zoning approval processes, allowing more accessible apartments at single-family homes and cutting the multiple layers of government — town, village, county and state — often required to secure approvals and permits.

Patchogue Mayor Paul V. Pontieri Jr., who has presided over a downtown revitalization that included thousands of new homes, such as the 262-unit Carriage House project on West Main Street, said the key was improving sewers and water supply systems.

"Nothing happens without sewers," he said.

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.