We need your voice!
Please attend the public hearing on the code amendment at the Tuesday, September 17, 2024 Riverhead Town Board meeting at 6 p.m. at Riverhead Town Hall, 4 West Second Street, Riverhead, NY 11901.
If you cannot make the Town Board meeting, please contact Supervisor Hubbard to let him know why you oppose this proposed law at 631-727-3200 Ext. 251 or hubbard@townofriverheadny.gov
As quoted in RiverheadLOCAL, I reiterated why we opposed these laws last time:
Ian Wilder, an attorney and the executive director of Long Island Housing Services, expressed similar concerns. [emphasis added]
“Is a homeowner allowed to turn a basement into habitable space? Is a homeowner allowed to have more than two commercial vehicles on a property?” Wilder said. “I live in Riverhead…Is Riverhead going to come inquire about who lives in my house?”
“The whole thing about family, or functional equivalent of a family, as an American, I find objectionable,” Wilder said. “It goes against both our history and what I believe the clear line is of what government interference in personal relationships is in terms of history.”
“We have always had the ability, especially for immigrants coming over here, to share living space in order to get themselves started,” Wilder said. “They may not be people who are related by blood. They may come from the same village and they may live separate lives.”
Wilder said that if the law results in discriminating against people of a protected class — such as race, sexual orientation or national origin — then it runs the risk of violating fair housing laws. But determining that would be a long and complicated process, if a lawsuit challenging the law is ever filed.
“I don’t have the clear yes or no answer,” Wilder said on the legislation’s legality. “But it’s something as a taxpayer in the town, I would want the town to look at before litigation starts, because the last thing I want is to be paying an attorney for litigation… that shouldn’t have had to start.”
Other than the code’s requirements restricting the number of occupants per bedroom — which conform to state safety codes — the code does not add any other protections for renters, Wilder said. He also sees making the law apply differently to renters and homeowners as government overreach.
“If the town believes that these changes protect the health and safety of its residents, then all these changes should apply regardless of whether somebody is a renter or homeowner,” Wilder said.
Together, we previously stopped the passage of these laws: https://riverheadlocal.com/2021/08/19/opponents-blast-riverheads-proposed-housing-code-changes-as-discriminatory-against-immigrants/
When we fight, we win.
Can you help us win again!
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