08/26/2026
Long Island has always been an expensive place to live but when the people who keep our communities running can no longer afford to live here, high housing costs become more than a housing problem, they become an economic problem.
Across Long Island, employers are struggling to recruit and retain workers because the people they need simply cannot find housing they can afford nearby. From farms and restaurants to hospitals, schools, small businesses and municipal services, our housing shortage is increasingly shaping who can afford to work here and whether businesses can continue to grow here at all.
Recent reporting from Newsday highlights just how far employers are being forced to go to address the problem themselves. At Wickham Farm in Cutchogue, for example, Thomas Wickham has spent years working to expand and renovate housing for farm employees. Despite investing hundreds of thousands of dollars, the approval process remains ongoing.
His experience illustrates a larger problem: even employers willing to invest their own money to house workers face the same lengthy approval processes and regulatory obstacles that have made it so difficult to build housing across Long Island.
We cannot solve a housing shortage if building housing remains exceptionally difficult.
Here in Huntington, we have an opportunity to take a different approach.
The creation of the Melville Town Center Overlay District recognized that our housing and economic futures are connected. Transforming portions of an aging, automobile-oriented office corridor into a walkable, mixed-use community can create new homes while supporting local businesses and strengthening one of Long Island’s most important employment centers.
Projects proposed within the district can provide homes for teachers, nurses, first responders, young professionals, service workers, seniors looking to downsize and the next generation of Long Islanders who increasingly wonder whether they can afford to remain in the communities where they grew up.
That matters to employers, too.
A company deciding whether to expand on Long Island needs more than office space. It needs employees who can reasonably commute to work and afford to build their lives here. A restaurant needs servers and cooks. A hospital needs nurses and technicians. A school needs teachers. A small business needs workers.
When those employees are priced out, every part of our economy feels the consequences.
The answer is not to abandon thoughtful planning or community input. New development should include appropriate infrastructure, environmental protections, affordability requirements and responsible design. But thoughtful review cannot become an excuse for paralysis.
For decades, Long Island has built far less housing than its economy and population demand. We are now experiencing the consequences: record housing costs, young people leaving, workers commuting increasingly long distances and employers struggling to fill positions.
Huntington can help demonstrate another path.
By thoughtfully creating housing in places like Melville, close to jobs, major roads, transit connections and existing commercial development, we can preserve the character of established residential neighborhoods while creating the homes our economy desperately needs.
Housing policy is economic policy.
If we want Long Island businesses to thrive, if we want our children to have the option of staying here, and if we want the people who work in our communities to also have the opportunity to live in them, we need to make it possible to build again.
The Huntington Township Housing Coalition believes Huntington should continue moving forward with responsible housing opportunities that address this crisis.
The cost of doing nothing is becoming far greater than the cost of change.
Long Island businesses are turning to worker housing as high costs strain hiring. East Hampton is considering rules that could expand employer-sponsored housing.
