The Town of East Hampton was awarded $7.04 million to build 16 houses at Cantwell Court last Wednesday when the New York State Department of Homes and Community Renewal met to authorize the grant.
According to an announcement put out by Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office, “The homes are expected to be sited this summer and will be sold for less than the cost of construction to low and moderate-income homebuyers.”
The $7 million will be used to purchase and site the homes.
“When I asked Governor Hochul for help making these homes possible, I was thinking about the families who want to stay in East Hampton and build their lives here,” said Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez in a press release. “She understood what that means for our community, and I am deeply grateful for her care, her partnership, and New York State’s investment. Because of this award, 16 families will find homes here, with a place to build their futures.”
At the May 12 East Hampton Town Board meeting, during a presentation by Mark Morgan-Perez, the town’s director of housing, it seemed the town was anticipating the authorization. The next evening, at her debate against East Hampton Mayor Jerry Larsen, the town supervisor announced the grant.
“We just heard today that we got a $7 million award for Cantwell Court to bring 16 houses to that property,” she told the audience. “And I was shaking. I was so excited when I got the news.” Mr. Larsen was less impressed.
“I don’t think we should accept the grant,” he said in a phone call. “We should be using our own C.H.F. [community housing fund] money, unless we can guarantee that those 16 homes will go to East Hampton residents. This is a project that we need to make sure goes to locals.”
Patrick Derenze, the town’s public information officer, said in a text that the residents will be chosen “based on our current local list, not the state’s.”
However, he said the town was unable to guarantee only town residents would benefit. “The law prevents us from only allowing town residents to apply,” he wrote. “We do have a resident preference though in our application process.”
The homes are called “Crossmods,” prefabricated and then finished on site. Through her MOVE-IN NY program, Governor Hochul has set aside $50 million in the 2025-26 State Budget to build the houses throughout the state.
“These homes resemble traditionally constructed single-family homes and can be integrated in all types of housing markets including urban, suburban, and rural communities,” said the press release.
“In 2025 New York State Homes and Community Renewal successfully piloted the MOVE-IN NY program with the creation of three new starter homes in the cities of Schenectady and Syracuse, as well as the Town of Newcomb,” it read. “The three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,500-square-foot homes, which include a porch and a garage, were manufactured in a factory and then sited on vacant land owned by local land banks. The homes were constructed and sited within six months — which is up to three times faster — and for half the cost of comparably sized homes built using traditional construction methods.”
The program was then expanded and East Hampton put in the town’s application last fall.
Mr. Morgan-Perez said the town was looking at both two and three-bedroom models for the location.
“We want to assure aesthetic diversity, and functional diversity so that these homes can accommodate different types of families,” he told the board. They don’t have basements; they have crawl spaces.
“The goal for the program is to employ income averaging to make sure that all of the houses aren’t sold to people only at one income band,” he said. “They want to have a range and ideally they initially suggested having the average A.M.I. [average median income] come to about 100 percent A.M.I.” For a family of four in Suffolk, the A.M.I. is $164,300.”
“It’s great to see our tax dollars coming back to East Hampton,” said Councilwoman Cate Rogers.
