Housing advocates back 60-unit Southampton affordable apartment deal

PEER NExtGen Housing Collaborative and East End YIMBY appeared at a Southampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals meeting to support a 60-unit affordable housing apartment complex behind the Southampton Full Gospel Church, 27east reported. If completed, the project would bring six 10-unit buildings on five acres with 15 of those units set aside for veterans. The rest would be affordable housing for people with disabilities and workforce housing. Developer Ralph Fasano of Medford-based Concern for Independent Living, which broke ground earlier this year on a $25 million affordable housing project in Port Jefferson Station, hasn’t filed an official application, but gauged interest of the zoning board. The latter told him to do more research in February, according to 27east, and Fasano has yet to return with a more formal proposal. In the interim, the New York State Homes and Community Renewal granted $8.9 million to Fasano’s group, a registered nonprofit, though the final sum the organization will get is closer to $20 million. Still, the Southampton affordable housing project faces obstacles. It still needs town approval before Fasano’s contract with the land’s owner, the gospel church, runs out in June. Two other East End affordable housing projects in Amagansett and Greenport recently secured $1.8 million in funds from Suffolk County. [27east]