In July, 1984, 6-month old Jamie Fatina Lee moved with her 6-year-old brother, mother and father into a one bedroom apartment on Brush Hollow Road in Westbury. Because the electricity in the apartment had not been turned on by LILCO, the family prepared their meals on a backyard grill. Two nights later, Jamie Lee died in a fire that gutted the Brush Hollow residence, displacing at least three families that lived there, as reported by The Westbury Times, an Anton Community Newspaper publication.

An inspection done after the fire found the premises to be in apparent violation of the New York State Multiple Residence law.

The story illustrates the problem of illegal housing. It is a topic that is often brought up at election time. It is one which frustrates many civic leaders since it is known to put a burden on municipal services and schools, causing taxes to rise, as well as parking, not to mention cause safety hazards.

"Illegal accessory apartments destroy the very fabric of suburbia in so many ways," said Seth Bykofsky, co-chair of The Community Alliance. "We have stood by and watched our tax base erode, our schools become overcrowded, our essential services overburdened, and our overall quality of life slip away. "It has become abundantly clear that underlying our runaway property taxes, the faltering school systems, on-street parking woes and the urbanization of Long Island there runs a common thread - illegal rental apartments."

While multiple dwellings in a neighborhood zoned for one-family use is unlawful, it does not have an easy solution. Efforts to curtail illegal housing mainly through code enforcement have proved to be ineffective at times.

Harvey Levinson, chairman of the Nassau County Board of Assessors, while acknowledging that his role as assessor is not to assume, enforcement authority to local building and zoning laws in the town is taking a crack at illegal housing.

Levinson announced this week that he will be reclassifying four dwellings he said were found to be illegal: multi-family dwellings in East Meadow, Franklin Square, Westbury and Elmont from Class I (residential) to Class IV (commercial) for taxation purposes.

"My initiative provides local authorities with a significant enforcement tool that will require violators to pay on average two and a half times more in property taxes, which should make these illegal units unprofitable to maintain."

The four homes that will be reassessed in November are 2389 Post Street in East Meadow, 335 Princeton Street in Westbury, 16 Doris Avenue in Franklin Square and 54 Roquette Avenue in Elmont.

According to Levinson, the properties on Post Street and Doris Avenue were revealed to have four or more families/individuals renting rooms in violation of building codes and local zoning laws.

According to Levinson, the Westbury property on Princeton Street was selected for reclassification after village court documents revealed that 19 adults and five children resided in a single-family residence and 11 pleas of guilty were entered by the owner/landlord charged with violating local zoning and building codes.

According to Levinson, the Elmont home located on Roquette Avenue was selected based on findings by the Elmont Quality of Life Committee, 64 calls for police service since 2000 and the presence of six electric meters on the single-family dwelling.

Levinson plans on reclassifying the properties in November. However, the change in taxes will not be immediate. The property owners have a right to appeal. Levinson said even if the property owners elect not to appeal or are unsuccessful, there will be a delay to get those taxes. "This is not happening overnight," he said.

According to Levinson, as a result of the properties being reassessed, the taxes for the Post Street home will go from $5,700 to $21,000; the home on Doris Avenue will go from $8,800 to $25,000; the home on Princeton Street will go from $8,800 to $25,000 and the home on Roquette Avenue in Elmont will go from $9,000 to $27,000.

The property owners will be receiving a letter notifying them of the change in assessment. The owners can then file a complaint with the assessment review commission. Grounds for an appeal could be that the assessment is not correct or that the illegal conditions that caused the reassessment no longer exist.