For decades, the middle-class towns of single-family homes that surround many American cities have used zoning laws to ensure they remain as they appeared in the post-World War II suburban boom.

Apartment buildings are simply not allowed in many places, an exclusion that, intentionally or otherwise, has historically barred people of color as well.

Faced with housing shortages, several states and the U.S. government have attempted to break those barriers through a mix of methods, including giving municipalities housing targets or lifting certain local zoning restrictions.

In New York, such a proposal from the Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul met howls of opposition in one of the American suburb’s hometowns. Critics in Long Island, a sprawling community of 2.9 million, denounce provisions that would set growth targets, encourage denser development near train stations and sometimes allow state officials to override local zoning laws.

Her plan would flood YOUR neighborhood with THOUSANDS of new apartments, says an opposition mailing. Others warn that Long Island would become New York City’s sixth borough. Critics, including many Republican officials, argue it would remove local control.

Were already a densely populated area. Where will you build? asked Republican Senator Jack Martins, noting that he supported affordable housing in the past as mayor. Are we going to start demolishing single-family homes to build apartment buildings?

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said its elaborate plan to track the creation of 800,000 new homes statewide has been mischaracterized. It was a sticking point in New York State budget talks this week, with Hochul’s fellow Democrats in charge of the legislature seeking a plan with fewer mandates and more incentives.

New York is following the lead of other states trying to alleviate housing tightness by lifting local building restrictions.

Among other things, Connecticut began requiring cities and towns to allow in-laws apartments unless they follow an opt-out process, while there was a debate over whether zoning exclusion rules exacerbate racial segregation. Oregon and California have passed laws to drastically curtail single-family housing, and both states have targets for new housing.

The accusations that the New York government is overreaching echo claims in some of those other states.

In California, the state filed a lawsuit against Huntington Beach last month, accusing the coastal community of flouting state laws requiring them to approve more affordable housing and build more than 13,000 homes in eight years. Huntington Beach filed its own lawsuit, claiming that the state would override local control to eliminate the city’s suburban character and replace it with a high-density mecca.

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The U.S. government suspended a rule passed during the Obama administration that required places to receive certain types of federal funding to analyze housing stock and devise plans to combat patterns of segregation and discrimination. Trump characterized it as an attempt to do away with suburbs.

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The Biden White House has criticized zoning exclusion rules that require lots to be a certain size, have ceilings of a certain height, and be for one family only, as tools misused somewhere to discriminate against people who are not white .

Hochul has presented her plan for New York as an attempt to prosper the state, rather than as a tool of desegregation.

It would give cities multiple avenues to meet housing targets. It would have a bigger one

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in suburban New York City, where three-year housing creation targets would be 3%

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1% for upstate areas. The higher goals would apply to Long Island.

If municipalities fail to meet targets, developers can follow a process in which the state can allow projects to proceed. Another provision would require localities to reclassify areas within half a mile of commuter train stations unless the area already meets density requirements.

Hochul said too many restrictions on new construction have contributed to skyrocketing housing prices that shut out low-income and middle-class workers alike.

In Nassau County, the part of the island closest to New York City, home prices rose 31% from 2018 to last year, according to the New York State Ass.

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n. from brokers. The median home price there is now $679,000. One-bedroom apartments can go for $3,000 a month.

I’ve just decided that I’m going to live at my parents’ house until I move from Long Island because I don’t know anyone who lives outside of their parents.

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home on Long Island, said Erin Curley, 25, of Massapequa Park.

Long Island is home to Levittown, famous as a model for the modern suburb of affordable homes separated by neat gardens. It also had an early covenant forbidding homeowners from renting or selling to people who were not whites. Lawyers see the legacy of such practices today.

The president of Long Island-based ERASE Racism said while some places have taken steps to build affordable housing, others are maintaining the kind of exclusionary zoning and practices behind racial segregation. Laura Harding said it could be “subtle things like a local, predominantly white town being accused of giving local residents preferences for housing programs.

This isn’t just about poor, low-income black people and Latino people, which is the prevailing stereotype when you hear affordability, Harding said. This is about everyone who is literally struggling to afford to stay in the communities they know, or in a new home.

Housing advocates blame local officials for too often turning down plans for multi-family housing that would ease those pressures. A good example is the 146-home affordable housing development at Matinecock Court in East Northport, which is expected to break ground this year.

The project was first proposed in 1978.

It has taken 44 years and many lawsuits, said Pilar Moya-Mancera, executive director of the No.

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Inc. That’s what Long Island needs to build affordable multi-family housing in a white neighborhood.

In the background on Long Island looms the gains of the Republican Party in the recent election. GOP candidates won all four of the island’s congressional contests last year, in large part by portraying Democrats as weak on crime. Now they can run on zoning, too, and the governors have proposed a tax increase to help the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which manages public transportation in New York City and its suburbs.

“There are many Democrats who think the current housing proposal, along with an MTA payroll tax, are potential extinction events for their party in local races,” said Lawrence Levy, executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University.

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The Senate Democratic Conference proposal included a more-incentive housing plan that excludes mandatory requirements and overrides of local zoning.

Hochul and the Legislative Democrats tried to resolve their differences during negotiations over the budget, due April 1. That deadline has been extended to at least next week. The governor has described housing costs as a core issue that needs to be addressed.

I knew it wouldn’t be easy, she told reporters on Wednesday.