Southold hires housing plan supervisor

As Southold Town works to mobilize its Community Development Project and housing plan, the Town Board’s recent hiring of a full time community development project supervisor aims to tighten the lug nuts on the wheels of local housing inventory development.

Andrea Menjivar, a 2024 architecture graduate of New York Tech and 2018 graduate of Southold High School, began her role as community development project supervisor on July 16. Her job will be to help develop the town’s implementation of its housing plan and assist people with application processes. 

The new community development supervisor has previously volunteered with CAST and has an appreciation for the community where she grew up. She also interned with the town’s Planning Department in 2023. 

Ms. Menjivar will work with and under the guidance of town government liaison officer Gwynn Schroeder. Together, they will function as the town’s Community Development and Housing Department, working with other departments such as the Planning Department under the Town Board’s direction to develop community and workforce housing. 

“The town is investing money not just from the Community Housing Fund, but from many town department budgets and staffing to create the Community Development and Housing Department, which has great administrative responsibilities,” Town Supervisor Al Krupski said at the second annual State of the Town address on July 24 at Peconic Landing in Greenport. The housing fund draws from a 0.5% real estate tax approved by East End voters in November 2022. 

The hiring is one that town Councilwoman Jill Doherty said has “been a long time coming.” Ms. Doherty and fellow Councilwoman Anne Smith had been working on the housing plan with planning department employees to get the ball rolling on initiatives like the housing subsidy framework and implementation plan for developers in the town, which was approved in June. 

“For now, [Ms. Menjivar] will be in the office of the government liaison and the two of them will work together to implement the housing plan,” Ms. Doherty said. 

An outline for a subsidy framework and implementation for individuals is on the docket for Ms. Menjivar and Ms. Schroeder to work out, before a plan is presented to the Town Board and a public hearing is held before its adoption. 

Having worked on the plan for the last six years and a staunch proponent of affordable housing in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Ms. Doherty said she’s always been “passionate about getting attainable housing. 

“I’ve always been one of those that need attainable housing myself, just like many other people who live and work in this town,” Ms. Doherty said. “So, I’ve kind of been doing that role. And we really need a full time person who is dedicated just to this in order to actually have success.”