SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Rising Costs On LI And Population Exodus

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

I was unaware of a problem that is hitting most Suffolk schools hard—a declining number of students—until talking to a former college journalism student of mine, Tim Laube, now an administrator in the Eastport-South Manor Central School District. “The drop in enrollment,” said Mr. Laube, “is directly attributable to affordability—the cost of living on Long Island.” 

The cost of housing is now very high in Suffolk and the rest of Long Island and so many young people are leaving and not having children who would go to school here. “They go off to college and don’t come back,” said Tim. 

Where are they going? Tim spoke of a meeting he attended at which the speaker told of “20 new school buildings a year” being constructed in South Carolina. Meanwhile, in his district, in which he is assistant superintendent for business and operations, there has been a reduction in students since 2010, when the total was 3,888, to “now 3,268. That’s a drop of 16 percent.” As a result, the district has had to reduce staff and hiring. A further decline in students is foreseen.

From Sag Harbor, my school district, I obtained in exploring the issue a detailed “Long Range Planning Study,” a “Demographic and Enrollment Analysis” covering 2018 to 2027. It was done for the district by the Western Suffolk BOCES Office of School Planning and Research. The study says the district “is expected to experience a decline in district K-12 enrollment during the projection period.” Cited are “the challenges young adults face with high rent costs and with saving money for the down payment required to purchase a home.” Also pointed to are “significant student loan debt” and “lower starting salaries.”

My wife and I purchased our first house—a seven-room home in Sayville—for $18,000 in 1964, A comparable house today would cost many, many times that. Newsday reported last year that the median sale price of a house in Suffolk was $380,000, citing data from the Multiple Listing Services of Long Island. The story’s headline: “LI HOME PRICES UP AGAIN,” and the article noted this was “a 7 percent increase from” the year before.  The median sale price in adjacent Nassau, meanwhile, was $525,000.

What would be the payments on a mortgage on a $380,000 house? An online “mortgage calculator” says with 4.5 percent interest, payments on a 30-year mortgage would be $1,925 a month. Then you have to figure on property taxes, 70 percent of which, ironically, goes to schools. With other expenses, if two people are involved, both have to work—and scrape by.

That’s why it’s hello South Carolina, hello upstate New York, etc.

In the Hamptons, the median prices of houses are astronomical. “The median price of homes currently listed in Southampton is $2,100,000,” reported Zillow last year. “The median price of homes currently listed in East Hampton is $1,595,000.” According to the online “mortgage calculator,” at 4.5 percent, payments on a $1 mortgage over 30 years would be $5,066 a month. To make payments of that kind you have to be loaded. 

In Smithtown, the median price of a house is higher than the Suffolk median. “The median price of homes currently listed in 11787 is $587,000 while the median price of homes that sold is $457,600,” said Zillow online last year. 

Now not every school district in Suffolk has declining student enrollment. On stable Shelter Island, enrollment in the pre-K-to-12th grade Shelter Island School has “been steady,” its superintendent Christine A. Finn was saying last week. “We watch enrollment very carefully. It’s 209 this year and was 213 last year.” But “all over Long Island,” said Dr. Finn, who previously was a principal in the Patchogue-Medford School District, “declines in enrollment have been a trend.” A key, she said, is high housing costs. When she graduated from Islip High School in 1980 it was with a class of 400. “Last year the graduating class was 280.”

There is a desperate need on Long Island for affordable housing to deal with declining school populations and other issues. Government on several levels are taking steps to encourage it. 

In the Town of Smithtown is an organization that has been in the fore in advancing affordable housing is the Long Island Housing Partnership. It is located at 180 Oser Avenue in Hauppauge. Its “Mission Statement” declares: “Since its inception in 1988, the mission of the Long Island Housing Partnership has been to provide affordable housing opportunities to those who, through the ordinary, unaided operation of the marketplace, would be unable to secure a decent and safe home or remain in a decent home.”

The phone number for the good people of the Long Island Housing Partnership is 631-435-4710.

There was a headline in the New York Post last month: “The exodus of New York City’s endangered middle class.” The article below it said, “New York City’s shrinking middle class is in full retreat,” and cited were “the city’s high—and rising—housing and other living costs.” We can’t let that happen here, impacting on our communities and decimating the numbers in new generations brought up in Suffolk.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.