The Coalition to Create a Martha’s Vineyard Housing Bank recently held two listening sessions. That alone sets it apart from the failed venture to create a housing bank several years ago.
We’ve been impressed by the careful and thoughtful approach of this coalition.
The effort is focused on state legislation that would allow for housing banks to be created and use a transfer fee, similar to the one that funds the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank. The coalition is working with communities such as Nantucket, with similar goals.
We like the transfer fee approach because it doesn’t create a battle over tax revenue. We also like that the housing bank is working with the Land Bank to limit the amount of administrative overhead to the housing bank.
It comes at a time when the housing market is out of control. Prices have skyrocketed during the pandemic, and there aren’t a lot of houses on the market, which is pushing the prices even higher. All of which contributes to pushing the American dream of home ownership out of the reach of too many Islanders. According to a Housing Needs Assessment report done by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission in 2020, the gap has grown between what a family on the Island can afford since its last study in 2012. The median household income for Oak Bluffs is $75,294, putting an affordable home at $400,000. However, the median home price in Oak Bluffs was $1.1 million. For the entire county, the disparity is even more staggering. The median household income is $71,811 and the median house price is closer to $1.2 million as of November 2020.
“We need a comprehensive regional solution with long-range planning and funding appropriate to the scale of the problem,” coalition steering committee co-chair Julie Fay, former executive director of M.V. Community Services, said during one of the listening sessions for the housing bank.
Having someone of Fay’s calibre at the helm is another positive for this initiative. She’s well respected, but more important, she knows how to get things done.
So what can you do?
There are bills before the state Legislature — H1377, S868, and H2895. While both state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, and state Rep. Dylan Fernandes, D-Falmouth, support the initiative, it’s important that Islanders let other legislators know how important this effort is to them. You can find a list of their emails at malegislature.gov/Legislators/Members/Senate and malegislature.gov/Legislators/Members/House.
The funding mechanism would consist of a 2 percent transfer fee paid by the buyer, the same as the Land Bank. The fee would be paid on any amount over $1 million. For example, a home purchased for $999,999 would be exempt from the fee, while a home purchased for $1.2 million would pay 2 percent on $200,000. Coalition campaign coordinator Laura Silber said at a recent listening session that this legislation could create up to $10 million in annual revenue. The proposed housing bank would also revisit its exemption threshold every five years.
And while it’s not set in stone, the housing bank would operate similarly to the Land Bank, with commissioners from each community and an advisory board in each Island town.
This legislation to set up a housing bank is a step in the right direction to address the Island’s affordable housing crisis, but it won’t solve the problem alone.
As last week’s town meeting in West Tisbury illustrates, there are other hurdles besides money to building affordable housing on the Island. Though the article to transfer property from the town to the affordable housing committee at 401 State Road ultimately won approval by the necessary two-thirds majority, there was a fair amount of NIMBYism to overcome during the hourlong discussion.
And as Island Housing Trust — the largest developer of affordable and workforce housing on the Vineyard — can attest, there is NIMBYism each time a project is proposed on the Island.
Perhaps having a housing bank in place and getting more of these projects funded and approved will help to educate the community about the need and the positive effects that they can have on the Island. What’s at stake is not having homes for police officers, firefighters, teachers, nurses, and others so vital to keeping our community functioning.
This isn’t just about building new homes. It’s about taking money to convert existing homes into affordable rental units, and providing down payments for people looking to buy. It’s about creating opportunities and stability.
The housing bank concept moves the needle in the positive direction. We need to keep pushing forward.
