Housing Dilemma     A number of fed-up Springs residents are
demanding that the Town of East Hampton do more to eliminate
overcrowded and illegal houses. Their request for increased
enforcement of laws already on the books is reasonable.     From
the late 1990s to the present, Springs has become something of a
dumping ground for the town’s low-end multiple housing. The
hamlet is not alone in this distinction; you can point to houses
from Montauk to Wainscott that are home to more occupants than
the four unrelated adults the law allows. The concentration in
Springs of single-family houses used as de facto apartment
buildings is disproportionate, and unfair.     Residents
complain that the town looks the other way as their
neighborhoods are degraded. They are angry that taxes rise
because the children of Spanish-speaking parents, who may live
in illegal apartments, enroll in the schools. Property
assessments, they say, have not kept pace with the widespread
and illegal conversion of single-family houses. They f