The East Hampton Housing Authority held a lottery on Friday to help determine who will be the first residents of a 37-unit affordable housing complex under construction at 531 Montauk Highway in Amagansett. There were 543 applicants.
The complex, known as Gansett Meadow, consists of seven buildings with 12 one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom rental units, plus one with four bedrooms, as well as a common building with laundry facilities and a meeting room. The location was chosen for its proximity to transportation and other essential services, Arthur Goldman, the chairman of the Housing Authority, said during a taping of the lottery drawing, which was broadcast by LTV.
Work on the project is nearing completion, said Catherine Casey, the executive director of the Housing Authority. The Suffolk County Department of Health Services has to give final confirmation that the wastewater treatment facility is "fully functioning and good to go," she said, but otherwise, "the site work is done, the landscaping is in, and the interiors are being finished up. We should be done by the end of September or beginning of October."
The apartments will be awarded to full-time, year-round residents of Suffolk County who work in the county and do not own property. The large number of applicants is a testament to the dire need for such housing, Ms. Casey said, adding that it was "heart-wrenching to read some of the applications." Nearly 20 percent were from people who are either homeless or "housing-insecure," meaning they are "couch-surfing or crashing somewhere," she said.
More than 75 percent were from residents of East Hampton and eastern Southampton Town. Most of the rest were from Suffolk County, with a few from New York City and states as far away as Texas and Florida. According to the federal Fair Housing Law, nonresidents cannot be prohibited from applying, but preference can be given to residents.
One unit will be reserved for an on-site superintendent. Eight will be either fully handicapped accessible or adaptable for persons with a disability, and eight will be subsidized through the federal Section 8 program.
Applicants for the latter units will need to go through an additional qualifying process conducted by the Community Development Corporation of Long Island, a nonprofit organization that provides support for low and moderate-income families, Ms. Casey said. The Housing Authority will screen all the others.
The preliminary application included a self-declaration of income, number of family members, and other qualifying information. "Now we are collecting documentation and getting more specific information," she said. "We will conduct credit and criminal [background] checks, and meet in person with applicants." The applications will be reviewed in the order established by the lottery.
The lottery did not determine eligibility, "nor is it a guarantee that a unit will be offered," Ms. Casey noted. In addition to allowing preference for those who live, work, or are hired to work in Suffolk County, New York State allows preferences for the frail elderly, honorably discharged veterans or their surviving partners, victims of domestic violence, persons who are housing-insecure, and those with special developmental or mobility needs. The results of the lottery, and the LTV video of the drawing, can be found on the Housing Authority's website.
Applicants on the lottery list who are not offered an apartment will automatically be put on a waiting list for the units as they become available. "We expect to be working from that list for as many as five years," said Ms. Casey. The Housing Authority will continue to accept applications, she said. They will be added to the end of the waiting list in the order they are received.
