Huntington Town Board will vote to accept or reject limited equity cooperative structure for Matinecock Court

Forty years after plans began for Matinecock Court, an affordable housing development slated for the corner of Pulaski and Elwood Road in East Northport, the Huntington Town Board will vote again tomorrow night to determine its future.

The development was originally approved as a mix of 70 rental units and 76 condominiums, affordable to household incomes between $47,000 and $95,000. But this past May, developer Peter Florey of D&F Development Group proposed a new structure that would merge all units into one residential cooperative. Now the town board must vote to authorize Supervisor Chad Lupinacci to execute an agreement with Matinecock Court and accept the new terms to convert the development to a “limited equity cooperative.”

But there’s already opposition from Councilman (and newly elected town supervisor) Ed Smyth, who wrote on his Facebook page this week that the new proposal is a “deception” and the nonprofit Housing Help, Inc., who owns the property, and Florey are “misleading the public about what this really is.” Smyth added that it’s a “conversion from actual owner-occupied units to effectively 100% rental units.” Smyth explained that shareholders are not able to sell their units on the open market, but are required to sell the shares back to the co-op. He said, “Residents are owners in name only. It’s like having a star named after you.”

Housing Help, Inc., put out a rebuttal post stating that “there have been a number of misleading claims circulating about Matinecock Court,” and they believed it was necessary to “address such claims and explain the truth” behind the new structure. Housing Help, Inc. wrote that calling the units rentals is “entirely false” and “under the new agreement, 100% of Matinecock units will be owned.” They added that this structure allows more future residents to build equity than what would have occurred under the current agreement, where only half of the units are owned. “The amount of equity per household will be based on an allocation of annual surpluses that the Cooperative generates on an annual basis, and will accrue to each household until the time they move out,” they wrote.

In June, Florey hosted a virtual meeting that allowed community members to ask questions about the newly proposed structure. He explained that as a limited equity cooperative, residents would be responsible for a “down payment” that’s equal to their monthly payment and includes their mortgage, taxes and maintenance fees. He said that monthly payments would range from $1,300 to $1,900, depending on the unit, and that a shareholder would earn $1,000 to $2,000 in equity after three years of ownership, and that the rate would grow over time. After five to ten years, equity would be in the $5,000 range and recipients could use the money any way they choose, including to purchase a new home, according to Florey.

In addition to concerns about the equity structure, opponents of the affordable housing development also note the possibility of increased traffic and school enrollment after the Northport School District just closed two elementary schools last year.

The Huntington Town Board meeting is Thursday, November 18 at 7pm in Town Hall. The resolution pertaining to Matinecock Court is 2021-633. You can view the meeting agenda here.