Civic Leader, Town Officials Deliver Illegal Housing Update

Video Caption: Bruce Sander of the Stony Brook Concerned Homeowners talks about potential town code changes. (Credit: Christine Sampson)

There are about 100 known illegal college boarding houses in the Three Village area so far, according to the Stony Brook Concerned Homeowners organization, and there are about 50 Three Village cases presently going through the court system, town officials said.

Those revelations were discussed at a meeting of the Civic Association of the Setaukets and Stony Brook on Monday night.

"We all know for these unscrupulous landlords, there’s a business model," town councilman Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld said. "They’re profiteering on the backs of our neighborhoods. Enough’s enough.”

The discussion comes two weeks after the Brookhaven town board passed code amendments that increased the maximum fines for first- and second-time violations of the housing code, restricted the size of a home’s driveway to prevent turning front lawns into parking lots, and further clarify the definition of “single family dwelling.”

Fiore-Rosenfeld said he would sponsor additional legislation if necessary to expand the town’s ability to stop boarding houses from being created. “I stand completely shoulder-to-shoulder with this community to do whatever we can," he said.

Fiore-Rosenfeld also encouraged people to call the town’s hotline for housing issues: 451-6161.

“My advice is to stay together, stay ever vigilant,” he said. “In real time, as you see things happening in your neighborhood, make the phone call immediately.”

According to Art Gerhauser, chief building inspector, the building department receives about 16,000 applications a year, issues about 12,000 permits a year – ranging from construction permits to accessory apartment permits to rental house permits – and performs about 28,000 construction inspections a year. 

Paul Degen, the town’s assistant chief investigator, encouraged people to collect as much accurate and specific information as they can when calling.

“We have limited resources in the town attorney’s office and the inspector’s office,” he said. “We try to decipher what’s lawful and what’s not at a particular residence.” 

Bruce Sander of the Stony Brook Concerned Homeowners organization – a group that has grown to about 600 members – outlined a number of additional town code amendments the group would like to see enacted. Among those ideas: reducing rental permits from two-year permits to one-year permits with mandatory inspections and a code prohibiting appliances such as refrigerators and microwaves in bedrooms. Sander also said the group wants the town to differentiate within its public rental permit database which houses are whole-house rentals and which ones have accessory apartments, and said the group wants the expiration dates of those permits listed in the town database as well.

The Stony Brook Concerned Homeowners group is planning another rally soon.

“Some people have been against our rallies but this is why we got the attention we got,” Sander said. “We’re not kids protesting. We’re adults. This is the major investment in our lives.”