Formica weighs Main Street revival, Suffolk housing crisis in podcast

Sal Formica used a podcast conversation to press two Suffolk County problems that touch the same neighborhoods in different ways, from Smithtown and Kings Park to St. James and part of Commack: vacant downtown space and homes priced beyond local wages. The timing mattered because 38% of downtown food-and-beverage and retail businesses lost a projected 50% or more in revenue in 2020 compared with 2019, a reminder that Main Street recovery in Suffolk still has a long way to go.

Formica, sworn in on Jan. 5, 2026, at the William J. Lindsay complex in Hauppauge, represents the 13th Legislative District and came into office as a former New York City Police Department detective in the Emergency Services Unit and former chief of the Commack Fire Department. He now sits on the Legislature’s fire, rescue and emergency services, public safety, budget and finance, veterans, seniors and human services, ways and means, and health committees, a mix that puts housing and downtown renewal squarely in his lane.

The county says its affordable housing need has reached crisis proportions. Suffolk’s program targets rentals for households earning no more than 80% of the HUD-established area median income and owner-occupied units for households at or below 100%. County housing staff also say the government does not place people directly into homes. Instead, it funds municipalities, nonprofits and developers to create or rehabilitate units, which means the real test is whether local partners can turn county dollars into finished apartments.

A Suffolk County Welfare to Work Commission report dated Sept. 23, 2024 sharpened that warning, saying the shortage hits working people earning under $70,000 a year, about one-third of the county population. The panel said the squeeze is pushing people out of Suffolk and contributing to homelessness, and urged a countywide summit because most housing decisions still rest with Suffolk’s 10 towns and 33 villages. In practical terms, that means rent relief depends as much on local zoning and approvals as it does on county money.

On downtowns, Suffolk said its Downtown Revitalization Grant Program has been helping towns, villages and community organizations since 1999, and this year it set aside $600,000 for capital projects in or adjacent to downtowns on municipally owned property. The county’s Downtown Revitalization Panel runs the competitive program and steers discussion on viability, safety and economic stability, the kind of work that can refurbish public property near a main street but will not, by itself, fill every storefront.

Housing politics have also sharpened around Suffolk’s June 2025 workforce-housing law, which requires developments receiving county workforce money to reserve at least five units or 10% of apartments, whichever is less, for volunteer firefighters and EMS workers with three years in good standing in the district where the project is built. Gwen O’Shea of Community Development Long Island called that change shortsighted, while her organization said its voucher programs helped house more than 18,000 people with more than 9,000 vouchers in its last report year. For Suffolk residents, the question now is whether the county’s downtown spending and housing rules produce visible vacancies filled, rents eased and workers able to stay close to the neighborhoods they serve.