Long Island Index pushes for more in-home rental apartments
A Long Island research group is urging local governments to consider allowing more rental apartments in private homes, to help cash-strapped homeowners and provide more housing for renters. In a report released Saturday , the Long Island Index outlines the vast differences in the ways Long Island ’s towns, cities and villages deal with so- called accessory apartments , or small units within owner-occupied homes. Most Popular The approaches range from fairly accepting — as in the Town of Babylon, where homeowners can get permits to rent out apartments if they meet certain conditions — to strict, as in the Town of North Hempstead , where such units can only be occupied by the homeowner’s parent or child. Long Island has a patchwork of rules for accessory apartments , which vary so widely that many homeowners fear getting penalized, so they don’t even try to create apartments, even if they want to and might be allowed, said Nancy Rauch Douzinas , publisher of the Index. The Index is a...