Island Housing Trust’s Perlman House is already completed, and tenants have moved in.
Now the final piece has come through, $1.2 million in anticipated financing from MassHousing for the seven-unit housing development in Vineyard Haven that includes a mix of affordable and workforce rental units.
IHT transformed the former Clark House, located at 20 Edgartown–Vineyard Haven Road, into the apartments, and named the building after the previous owners.
“With a significant need for affordable housing for year-round residents on Martha’s Vineyard, we are very pleased to be a partner in this effort to develop seven new rental homes for moderate-income families on the Island,” MassHousing executive director Chrystal Kornegay said. “We commend Island Housing Trust for its commitment to providing housing and economic opportunities on the Vineyard, and congratulate them on completing this important project.”
In email to The Times, Philippe Jordi, executive director of IHT, explained, “MassHousing awarded us $500,000 in workforce housing funding and $700,000 in DHCD Affordable Housing Trust funding, along with $620,000 in permanent financing, back in 2020 after we had already purchased the former Clark House and while we were in the process of doing necessary renovations to repurpose the former eight-bedroom inn into seven separate rental apartments. We closed on the MassHousing funding and financing after we completed the renovations because of the timing and MassHousing’s requirements. We used our private lines of credit, called the Make It Happen Fund, and a construction loan from the MV Bank to finance the acquisition and renovations that were taken out with the MassHousing funding and financing.”
Jordi said the project was made possible by private donors ($197,000), and municipal CPA and Affordable Housing Trust grants ($400,000 in Tisbury CPA and AHTF, and $100,000 from West Tisbury), that helped leverage $1.8 million in MassHousing funding and financing.
The next project up is Keuhn’s Way in Tisbury, a 20-rental-apartment project scheduled to start this spring with $3 million in MassHousing/DHCD funding and $1.6 million in MassHousing financing that was successfully leveraged with $1.5 million from six-town CPA grant funding and $2 million in private donations, according to Jordi.
According to the release, MassHousing has financed two rental housing communities on Martha’s Vineyard totaling 62 units of housing, with an overall original loan amount of $9.6 million. The agency has also provided home mortgage loans to 17 homebuyers.
