To the Editor:
As a recently retired, Oak Bluffs–born and –raised community banker, having worked in Vineyard banking since the age of 15, I am keenly aware of the trajectory of our housing crisis. Some of the first mortgages I provided were for youth lots — over 40 years ago. During my tenure at the M.V. Cooperative Bank, we made the first loan to the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority to help get them started — over 30 years ago.
There was a concern then, as there is now, that creating affordable housing would unwelcomely change the character of the community — what we have seen, and are seeing, is in fact the opposite. Every day that we don’t take steps to create and preserve our year-round housing
infrastructure, we actually lose the character and threaten the sustainability of our community.
Islandwide, we need to provide more year-round housing options (primarily rentals, while also supporting ownership opportunities) that are affordable and accessible, now and forever, to a broad range of incomes and household compositions.
It will take planning, zoning changes, new and improved infrastructure, and money to address this challenge in a comprehensive and thoughtful manner. The only way to effectively and efficiently accomplish the needed housing and sustain a vibrant social fabric, and to do so while also mitigating and reducing the growing risks to our shared, natural environment and health, must be via Islandwide collaboration.
The housing bank, as proposed, provides structured collaboration while still maintaining town-centered control. These controls are such that no funding or project in any town can move forward without that town’s approval. With environmentally appropriate requirements in place, a minimum of 75 percent of funds must be directed to repurposing already developed property. A cap on how much debt can be incurred by the housing bank keeps spending in check, and allows towns to withdraw at any time, and satisfy their portion of debt within one to two years. An automatic sunset provision provides a timeframe for ending the funding source, unless affirmatively approved to continue by the towns. Once the funding is invested in our community, it is a permanent investment; because restrictions placed on the housing created require that the housing be maintained as perpetually accessible to future generations.
All these provisions make this a prudent, well-focused, and controlled method. From a risk perspective, this is a sound plan for providing the necessary funding, and a true opportunity to achieve the positive impact we so desperately need.
Stable, affordable housing options are critical to our future … to our economy and our community. In the absence of a new revenue stream which is independent of town budgets, our property taxes will increasingly feel the burden of ongoing destabilization. The transfer fee revenue stream relieves the burden — it was the answer in 2005 and 2006 when all six Island towns voted yes on a housing bank, and sent myself and other Island representatives to the State House to advocate for it. It is still the answer now.
This time, because of significant changes at the state level, we can actually succeed at getting this passed. But first we all have to come together.
I encourage us all to vote, both at town meeting and at the ballot box, to support this article. The hole that we need to fill just keeps getting deeper — we have missed so many opportunities in the past, and we cannot afford to let this one get away.
As the baseball season is about to open, it’s important to remember that you can’t get an opportunity to help your team score unless you step up to the plate. It’s time for us all to step up together. Please.
Richard Leonard
Oak Bluffs
