New hope for Inwood housing plan

On Dec. 8, 2004, then Nassau County Legislator Jeff Toback and then County Executive Tom Suozzi met at an empty lot on Harris Avenue in Inwood, steps from the Number Four School, to announce plans for eight new affordable homes to be built on the site by the Long Island Housing Partnership.

Five years later, Toback and Suozzi have been voted out of office and there has yet to be any construction on the county-owned land next to Route 878, but the project appears to be closer to becoming a reality.

After an exhaustive review, the Town of Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals recently approved a scaled-down affordable-housing plan for Inwood, including four two-story, single-family colonial-style homes on Harris Avenue and one two-family home on Lawrence Avenue.

The original Long Island Housing Partnership plan included eight two-family homes on Harris Avenue and two two-family homes on Lawrence Avenue. The Harris Avenue parcel measures 22,230 square feet and is zoned Residential B.

"It is one of the most frustrating things I have been involved in," Toback said of the lengthy planning and approval process. "Sometimes the things you fight longest and hardest for taste better when they actually happen."

The project was initially approved by the county Legislature in a unanimous vote on Dec. 6, 2004. Part of the reason for the lengthy delay in getting it off the ground was a switch in developers, from the National Development Group to the Valley Stream-based Roosevelt Development Corp., according to Long Island Housing Partnership Vice President James Britz. There were also concerns expressed by Hempstead town officials and some in the Inwood community about the density of the initial proposal, Britz said.

When the plan was announced five years ago, the Inwood Civic Association voiced its opposition because of the project's proximity to the Number Four School, the area's lack of parking and the expected increase in traffic on Route 878. The association’s president, Anthony Laferrara, said he will need to see more information on the revised plans before he will decide to support or oppose the project.

The cost of building each housing on Harris Avenue will be about $307,000, and the two-family home on Lawrence Avenue will cost around $420,000, with both projects receiving state and federal funding, according to Britz. The Harris Avenue homes will sell for roughly $157,000, and the Lawrence Avenue home will be offered for around $219,000. They will be sold to families earning no more than 80 percent of the area's median income of $81,450, Britz said.

"It's beneficial for the local community as well as the county, in that we're going to be able to get five people affordable homes," he said. "It's a win-win situation for the area."

The Long Island Housing Partnership hopes to break ground on the new homes by early March.

The buyers will be selected in a lottery, but it has not yet been determined whether Inwood residents will get first priority, Britz said. The Housing Partnership is planning to start marketing the homes at workshops in Inwood in the next six weeks. "We are planning a heavy community outreach," said Britz.

Inwood Community Group founder Gregory Nunn said that new affordable housing is needed in Inwood because the area has recently seen an increase in the number of people living in illegal housing. Nunn said he hopes Inwood residents will have a chance to claim much of the new housing. "We not only need homes, we need safe homes," he said.

The homes could mean an increase in the public-school student population in the Lawrence school district. Public-school attendance has dropped in District 15 in recent years because more parents are sending their children to private and parochial schools. "Any increase in student population in the district would be enthusiastically welcomed," said Lawrence school board President Murray Forman.

For information on applying for the new Inwood homes, contact the Long Island Housing Partnership at (631) 435-4710.