To spotlight what they call an affordable housing crisis, particularly a missed opportunity in Garden City, advocates camped out on the Social Services site at the corner of Eleventh Street and County Seat Drive on May 11 to prove a point. The only way they can live in Garden City is in a tent.

The overnight protest, which Nassau County provided the permit for, began last Thursday afternoon and ended early Friday morning. Participants even set up a tent for County Executive Tom Suozzi, who said this of the 25-acre site at a Feb. 5, 2004 Garden City Village Board meeting: "I have zero interest in putting anything but upscale housing in that area."

Frederick Brewington, a civil rights attorney from Hempstead, told Garden City Life the 17 1/2 hour encampment intended to drive their point home. "We are here to raise the issue of affordable housing to a level that would require people to not stick their head in the sand," he said, adding, "We are here ... to show this ground is ours. Rain or shine, we won't change our mind."

Bert Napear, who attended the rally to show his support, said, "People need to wake up to the fact that there is a problem." Affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Church of Shelter Rock in Manhasset and the Long Island chapter of the Interfaith Alliance, Napear took part in an interfaith candlelighting vigil back in June 2005 in front of Suozzi's office to persuade the county executive and the Village of Garden City to include at least some affordable housing on the 101 County Seat Drive site.

Participants chanted, "It's a shame. It's a pity. We can't live in Garden City." Among those who attended, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) members, who, back in June 2004, pled with village trustees to grant zoning changes that would include multifamily affordable housing on the site.

Despite their comments, and after at least two years of deliberation, the then-board unanimously passed Local Law 2-2004, which rezoned the property for residential use - allowing up to 90 single-family homes or 150 townhouses or a mix of both.

In that same month, Suozzi officially put the 25-acre parcel up for sale. According to Meredith Feinman, deputy Nassau County attorney, the land has not been sold to date because of a lawsuit in which the court criticized certain procedural defects in the county's SEQRA (State Environmental Quality Review Act) process. Feinman assured the county is currently rectifying its SEQRA presentation to obtain the necessary approvals to move forward with the sale.