The recently announced joint venture by the Incorporated Village of Westbury and the Town of North Hempstead to fight the illegal housing issue that has plagued the community for years, is very much welcome. This is especially so since the problem is expected to get worse if the projected 3.5 percent increase enrollment in the Westbury Union Free School District (WUFSD) for 2015-2016, can be used as an indicator of what’s to come. According to the WUFSD superintendent, Dr. Mary Lagnado, approximately 130 of the current school district population represents the children of illegal immigrants; unaccompanied youths coming across the border, cleared by the federal government and refugees under the law. The district is legally obligated to educate them, and register them in the school system.
It does not leave much to the imagination as to what unscrupulous opportunists may be willing to do, given the deficit of affordable housing in the current stock and what some of the unfortunate outcomes could be. The massive explosion that resulted in the collapse of three buildings and the death of two people in Manhattan two weeks ago, supposedly caused by illegal gas connection, is still fresh in some people’s mind. We have managed to dodge the bullet so far, but I doubt that many of us are content in continuing to roll the dice.
The village board of trustees has demonstrated over the years that it takes the issue of illegal housing seriously; what with the various well publicized administrative search warrants and sweeps, one as recently as last month, and the allocation of a full compliment of enforcement officers—arguably the most in the county for a village its size. I’m not sure if the same can be said about the Town of North Hempstead in terms of the allocation of resources. From time to time, at school board meetings and other forums that I have attended, charges have been leveled that the Town has not done enough regarding this issue—I stand corrected if this is not so. My fear is that this might be a lopsided arrangement with the village doing most of the heavy lifting, and the town relying on gentle persuasions and voluntary compliance by the culprits. I would be elated to be assured that I am dead wrong on both counts.
–Chester McGibbon
