CCPA student uses class research to help draft Long Island laws

By using the research that she conducted in her classes, Binghamton University student Kiersten Seltzer is helping to make real policy and legal changes back at her home on Long Island.

Seltzer is a senior studying public administration in the College of Community and Public Affairs (CCPA) accelerated master’s program. In spring 2020, she took PAFF520 21st-Century Governance with Visiting Assistant Professor Aleksey Tikhomirov. For her final project, she researched solutions to the affordable housing crisis on Long Island, drawing on some of the course readings, including How Minneapolis Ended Single-Family Zoning (Kahlenberg, 2019). Then, over the past summer she completed an internship with Nassau County Legislator Joshua Lafazan’s office, where she learned about local politics and was presented with a challenge by Lafazan.

“[Leg. Lafazan] told us at the beginning of the summer that he wanted his interns to pitch an original idea for legislation,” Seltzer said. “He really wants young people to be involved in politics, specifically local politics, and see that they can make a difference.”

Seltzer was grouped with other interns to determine what to pitch to Lafazan. After showing them her research on affordable housing, the group decided to explore accessory dwelling units (ADUs) as a solution to Long Island’s affordable housing crisis.

“An [ADU] is basically when someone converts a place on their property, like a few rooms in their house, a garage or basement, into an apartment that they rent out,” Seltzer said. “On Long Island, that’s illegal in many towns, but people do it all the time! The problem with developing affordable housing on Long Island for anyone, whether they be college graduates or blue collar workers, is that there’s nowhere to build. It’s completely suburban and compact. There’s not a lot of space to put apartments, and when people do build complexes it’s very expensive. A lot of young people who come back after college are forced to move back in with their parents because they have no other options.”

Seltzer and her group put together a presentation on the issue and shared it with Lafazan over Zoom. Her group’s proposal landed in the top five, and their group grew larger as other interns joined and helped refine the ideas Seltzer put forth. After another presentation, Lafazan, a young politician who campaigned for re-election in 2019 while living in his parent’s basement, decided to move forward with Seltzer’s idea.

“Josh [Lafazan] taught us how to write the bill, such as how to format it and what each section should look like, on a big Zoom call,” Seltzer said. “But our bill basically said that we think that Nassau County should have an affordable housing committee. It would investigate the state of ADUs on Long Island and try to find out how many there are, where they are and if they should be legalized in Nassau County.”

Seltzer’s bill is currently being edited and refined for presentation to the Nassau County Legislature. At the time of writing, there has been no presentation date set for the bill.

Tikhomirov believes that Seltzer’s story shows the influence young people and students can have on the world and their local communities.

“She’s such a great example of what CCPA students can do,” Tikhomirov said. “I always encourage our students to think longer-term and engage with every assignment as a building block for something they might be looking to do in the future, that could perhaps be an internship project or even be shared in a job interview. Whatever topics and issues our students choose to research throughout the semester should not end when the course ends. Kiersten is a great example of everything that public administration represents. She’s a thoughtful and fair person, she believes that policy change should be implemented efficiently and effectively, and she also has the ability to craft those policies.”

Lafazan also believes the bill can create an important change in Nassau County thanks to Seltzer and her hard work.

“Kiersten is a remarkable person and I think we’ll see her on the ballot one day,” Lafazan said. “I met her when she worked with me on my campaign last year, and I believe that those interns won that election. Young people are taken for granted by people in politics, and through her example, we see that young people have a voice that is powerful and they can make a lasting difference in their communities.”