'Concerned Homeowners' Lobby for Further Town Code Changes

• The town should stop issuing new permits until it "thoroughly investigates the current application process and town codes."
• Landlords should be made to agree to periodic inspections for fire and safety code compliance in order to get permits renewed.
  
• Landlords should be asked to sign affidavits saying they will comply with the town codes, and should be asked to sign affidavits saying they will perform background checks on tenants so as to prevent potentially dangerous people from moving in.
• Those who fail to remedy code violations in a timely manner should have their rental permits revoked, or should not be allowed to apply for renewal.
• Whole house rentals should be subject to the same permitting process that accessory apartments require.
• Utility companies should be informed of the commercial nature of rental houses, so as to charge them commercial rates, and extra waste management fees should be charged for garbage removal.

"We will not permit anyone to destroy the integrity of our single family neighborhoods by skirting the laws for profit," Sander said. "Words of advice, slumlords: Sell your homes to families and leave our community because it will not be profitable anymore. We will be there at every turn to make sure this becomes a reality. ... We will not stop until this situation is rectified and our neighborhoods are back to their intended purpose and that is to raise our families."

In recent months, the Brookhaven town board voted unanimously to limit the number of unrelated people who can live in a single home from eight to four; it voted to double the maximum fines for code violations; it banned the paving of front yards to create parking lots; and it shifted the burden of proof from the town to the landlords themselves to prove that the folks living in the house are indeed related. The town has also begun to expedite legal proceedings against the most egregious homeowners.

Hundreds of residents attended the meeting on Wednesday at Mount Elementary. Sander said the membership of the Stony Brook Concerned Homeowners grew from 400 in April to 700 in June. Approximately 115 illegal rooming houses have been identified to date by the group; Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine said one landlord has even been sentenced to jail time because of code violations.

"What these landlords have been doing to this community is scurrilous," Romaine told the organization. "They have destroyed the quality of life for too many families for too long. I made it clear to my staff that we would do everything in our power in this town to reverse the tide of illegal rooming houses ... to break the business model."