Commission’s housing task force holds inaugural meeting

Politicians and representatives from off-Island communities urged Vineyard residents and officials not to delay efforts to mitigate the Island’s housing crisis Thursday evening, during the first meeting of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission’s Housing Action Task Force.

Drawing around 80 attendees, the newly created task force’s inaugural meeting served as a weighty reminder of the urgency of implementing drastic change in order to combat the acute housing shortage on Martha’s Vineyard.

Spearheaded by MVC’s Island housing planner, Laura Silber, the group aims to be a centralized forum for all things housing, in order to be able to address each of the particular nuances of the crisis. 

The goals of the group are multifaceted, and involve collecting and analyzing updated data from Island towns, gaining knowledge from other similarly situated communities, and engaging state representatives and local leaders. 

MVC executive director Adam Turner kicked off Thursday’s forum by highlighting the need to tackle the Island’s housing crisis in a proactive and progressive way. 

That includes focusing on a number of goals and objectives, some of which are already underway. 

The commission has been working collaboratively with not just local boards and committees, but state organizations to help better understand the breadth of the crisis. These include Housing to Protect Cape Cod and Islands, the Massachusetts Association of Regional Planning Agencies (MARPA), and the Rural Policy Advisory Council, among others. 

At the request of the Island’s planning boards, the MVC will be conducting an Islandwide short-term rental study, which is currently in its first phase of creating a scope of work.

The commission is also working on updating its older affordable housing zoning assessment, along with assisting towns with crafting new accessory dwelling unit (ADU) bylaws. 

Leslie Sandberg, select board member from Provincetown, shared her town’s experience dealing with their housing crisis.

Provincetown, another Massachusetts resort community, has been working hard to address the issue in the past few years, making incremental strides to ensure housing stability for its residents. Sandberg said the select board has been especially focused on the problem.

The median home price in Provincetown is around $1.9 million, Sandberg said. “The skyrocketing prices coupled with the year-round inventory has put pressure on our year-round community.”

Provincetown officials have been putting money into its year-round market rental housing trust, which had been created via a home-rule petition almost a decade ago. That trust is largely fueled by revenue from short-term rental tax.

This past town meeting, Provincetown voters approved the creation of a year-round deed restriction program, which is to be managed by the aforementioned trust. Its goal is to create housing inventory for year-round residents, through incentivization. 

It allows the town to purchase deed restrictions from homeowners and developers “to permanently limit the occupancy of a given unit via a year-round housing occupancy restriction for rental or housing ownership.”

The town has also just recently created a transportation pilot program that fills in service gaps left by the Cape Cod Transit Authority. The purpose is to financially assist those who work in the town in their commute to and from Provincetown.

The town’s short-term rental revenue, which exceeds $5 million, is divided among a handful of areas, including the year-round market rate trust and the affordable housing trust. A large part of that goes to substantial affordable housing projects. “We’re trying to funnel as much money as possible to housing,” Sandberg said.

Last year, the town also imposed an additional 3 percent community impact fee on short-term rentals that are considered “professionally managed units” (owners with a certain amount of rental units), per the Massachusetts Rental Law.

Generally, “how do we fund everything?” Sandberg asked. “Short-term rental revenue.”

“If Provincetown can do this, you can do this,” she said to her Island cohorts. “But what I would say to you is, don’t delay.”

She said her town did delay action up until recently, and the consequences were dire. “We’ve lost some very important people and businesses,” she said, reiterating, “Please don’t delay.” 

Tucker Holland, Nantucket’s municipal housing director. seconded Sandberg’s plea. “I encourage you to start now,” he said to Vineyard attendees. “Go as quickly as you are able to go.”

Martha’s Vineyard is lucky, he said, as its residents have “a crystal ball — It’s called Nantucket.”

The median home price on the Vineyard’s sister island now hovers over $3 million. Martha’s Vineyard is not too far behind.

Beginning in 2019, Nantucket voters have approved around $70 million toward housing efforts. This is in addition to the recent approval of a $6.5 million permanent override at its town meeting. That money will also go toward housing initiatives. Those initiatives involve both new construction and repurposing existing buildings, in order to support the year-round community and its economy. 

Islanders also heard from State Sen. Julian Cyr (D-Truro) Thursday, who, while sharing his concern for what the future may hold for Martha’s Vineyard housing, offered ways Island towns can keep up their momentum regarding this issue. 

“What we’re up against here is quite steep,” he said. “Unfortunately, this is because of a failure in leadership to anticipate these needs and issues in the last several decades.”

“We’re now in the position where year-round people cannot make a life on the Island,” he said. “In part, because of the inaction, and because it’s taken us so long to realize what’s going on.”

This puts Islanders and nearby community members in a challenging spot, he said. “We’re going to have to marshal every and all resources as an Island and as a region, to really push back on persistent and misguided NIMBYism.” 

That NIMBY (“Not in my backyard”) mentality upends the ability of people, largely the younger generations, “to even envision a life on the Island,” he said.

To its detriment, political leadership has “too often hid behind conservationism and historic conservation and environmentalism” when it comes to addressing the needs of year-round residents, he said. 

“We’re now in a position where you need to make hundreds of thousands of dollars as a household to be able to even dream of affording a home … It’s completely out of reach.” This is especially true for the younger generations, Cyr said. 

Housing on the Vineyard is no longer valued on how much someone can afford in a given year, he added, but rather “valued on what [short-term renters are] willing to pay by the night.” 

But there are ways to move forward, Cyr said, highlighting main focal points: infrastructure, revenue, and policy.

Wastewater management and upgrades are key, he said, considering the Islands’ environmental fragility when it comes to balancing needed infrastructure expansion with nitrogen and phosphorus mitigation efforts.

Cyr suggested that the Island towns take part in the regional water protection fund, which is backed by placing an additional 2.75 percent surcharge on lodging and rentals. That fund helps to offset the cost of wastewater and water quality projects. Town select boards are able to decide whether to take part in that initiative.

Preserving existing housing and creating new units both require making use of revenue, he said. In addition to the local option transfer fee — which will hopefully become the mechanism for funding the Housing Bank upon its codification at the State House — Cyr said Island towns must utilize existing, stable revenue sources to help pay for housing initiatives — specifically, collections from the short-term rental tax.

He said a number of nearby communities have already dedicated a portion, or all, of that tax toward housing.

Municipalities must be willing to make amendments to local land-use policies, zoning bylaws, and enforcing deed restrictions, Cyr said. But those changes can’t be done at a state level. Things like enacting timeshare restrictions, regulating short-term rentals, and creating ADU programs must come from the towns themselves. 

There’s “no one silver bullet,” he said. “We’re going to need an all-of-the-above approach.”

The senator offered some additional food for thought to the meeting’s attendees, largely made up of local board and committee members, upon his closing remarks.

“Think about how you came to the Island,” he said. “Whether you were born there, or whether you came over — I’m sure there’s some great stories there, right? I can assure you, that how you did it would likely not be possible today.” 

Cyr said that ought to be motivation for “the swift and rapid shift that we need to take to preserve the viability of our community and ensure that all six towns on the Island are places that can sustain a vibrant year-round community.”