To the Editor:
The Oak Bluffs Democratic Town Committee would like to demonstrate our support for state-enabling legislation to fund an Islandwide housing bank on Martha’s Vineyard. Citizens can join us by casting your votes at town meeting and in your town’s election.
The crisis of affordable housing on Martha’s Vineyard is a crisis for all of us. Because of a lack of housing that people with ordinary incomes can afford, we have difficulty supporting our friends and neighbors, and all whose work on the Island allows us to live here in the place we love. Unless we act now, this critical shortage of housing will only worsen.
Fortunately, we have a solution ready to help remedy our housing insecurity. State legislation is in the works that will enable the towns of Martha’s Vineyard to form an all-Island housing bank through a small transfer tax (2 percent) on housing sales on the Vineyard over the amount of $1 million. This detailed plan has been worked and reworked over a long period of time by a group of Martha’s Vineyard citizens with advice from lawyers, and with research into solutions that other communities have employed. You can find all the details on the website of the Coalition to Create the MV Housing Bank (ccmvhb.org).
The officers of the Oak Bluffs Democratic Town Committee encourage all the citizens of Martha’s Vineyard to attend your town meetings and to vote in your town elections in the coming weeks. We strongly endorse the formation of an all-island housing bank and the funding mechanisms that make it possible. Please vote to support the warrant article at town meeting and the ballot question in the following election. Adoption requires positive votes at both town meeting and in the town election.
Marie Doubleday
On behalf of Oak Bluffs Democratic Town Committee