The Suffolk County Legislature is expected to vote December 18 on a bill that would put the Town of Babylon’s Affordable Housing plan into operation. The resolution sponsored by Maxine Postal (D-Amityville), calls for the town to receive funding from the county’s $10 million Affordable Housing bond to rehabilitate abandoned properties. The properties would then be "sold" to first time homebuyers who qualify for affordable housing under the town’s

guidelines.

The plan is part of a differently designed affordable housing plan the County passed about a year and a half ago called the Land Development Subsidy and while any town can participate, none have applied to date.

"Babylon has a plan to rehabilitate property because there is really very little open space in the town to develop new projects," said Postal. "My legislation is designed to allow for that."

According to figures introduced in the town’s plan, as of 1995 vacant land in all land use categories comprised no more than 8.5 percent of the total (land). Since 1995, further development has reduced that figure "considerably," said town officials.

The five-year plan includes an extensive housing market analysis, which shows conclusively that there is little vacant land left to develop.

As a result Postal got together with Councilman Wayne Horsley and other town officials and discussed the viability of rehabilitating abandoned properties for use in the affordable housing plan.

"The properties in question, some of which are real eyesores, would be purchased by the town from the county for $10 per parcel and the town would then receive a subsidy to re-develop the properties."

Postal pointed out that if a property were to cost, say, $60,000 to redevelop, the town would get that subsidy and then sell the property for that amount to a "qualified" homebuyer, who would get a mortgage from participating banks. "That way," Postal noted, "the money goes back into the fund. So it’s a revolving program."

Horsley explained that the idea goes back to the Shoreham lawsuit in which Suffolk residents were over-charged for services. "The money from the lawsuit was then slated for affordable housing by the legislature," he said.

However, a notation in the program limited it to vacant property, and since Babylon is 97 percent developed already, it virtually eliminated the Town from the plan.

"That’s when we suggested affordable housing through rehabilitation," said Horsley. "We have foreclosures and boarded up houses and with Maxine’s help, the legislature amended its resolution. We then put together a proposal for the revolving fund."

Horsley added that homebuyers would be chosen through a lottery system. He said prospective buyers must be in the job market already, but are not in a position to afford a new home. He said the town will be in a position to use up to $500,000 in available funding to rehabilitate residential properties.

Under the plan, the buyer would secure a mortgage and repay the town the rehabilitation costs at closing. The plan calls for maximum earning limits on the homebuyers starting at $44,100 for a family of one and topping out at $83,100 for a family of eight.

"The problem with the original concept was that if the Shoreham money was held up in any way, we’d be stopped cold," Horsley said. "Plus, of course, we didn’t have very much space to develop affordable housing projects. So we got to together with Maxine (Postal) and said let’s use revenue sharing instead and that’s the legislation that has recently gone through the committee process."