Class war disturbs peace of Shelter Island Will Pavia, New York July 16 2018, 12:01am, The Times Home and garden United States Economics Shelter Island can be reached only by ferry. Residents are no longer allowed to rent their homes more than once a fortnight Shelter Island can be reached only by ferry. Residents are no longer allowed to rent their homes more than once a fortnight ALAMY Share Save Wall Street magnates and New York celebrities have colonised the Hamptons and each summer spread eastwards along the prongs of Long Island, through the vineyards of the North Fork and fishing haunts of Montauk. But between these two eastern arms lies a tranquil island of trim lawns and little traffic, reachable only by ferry. This summer the peace of Shelter Island has been fractured by a row with all the fervour of a class war. It has pitted poorer islanders who rent their homes to visitors against wealthier residents who say they are fighting to protect Shelter Island from the cocktail-swilling hordes of the Hamptons. Petitions have been started, the letters pages of the local newspaper have filled with correspondence and a group of residents have filed a lawsuit alleging that their rights as homeowners and Americans are being infringed. At issue is a law passed by the town board of Shelter Island prohibiting residents from renting their homes more than once each fortnight. Supporters say that without it the island would become a “ghetto” for weekending tourists. Allowing all to freely rent their homes through Airbnb was akin to allowing “a for-profit garbage dump into your neighbourhood”, Kathleen DeRose wrote in a letter to the Shelter Island Reporter. “You live with the stench while absentee owners collect profits.” Jim Colligan, who moved to Shelter Island in 2007 and was one of the councillors who supported the law, raised the spectre of the party town across the water. “We don’t want to be Montauk, with 16 people staying in a three-bedroom home,” he told the New York Post. Opponents of the law have cast Mr Colligan as one of a new, moneyed elite, uninterested in the struggles of long-term residents. “There are many families that have been here since the 1600s,” Kathleen Klenawicus, who runs a retirement planning business, said. “Many hold down multiple jobs and rely on the extra income they make from renting their homes to tourists.” She said that many of those who relied on rental income were women supporting their families. “About 80 per cent of the renters on Shelter Island are women.” she said. Six women have filed a lawsuit against the town board, citing the Fourteenth Amendment and claiming that their constitutional rights to “equal protection of the laws” have been infringed. “It’s about property rights, it’s about elitism, it’s certainly about women’s issues,” Ms Klenawicus said.