Winter shelter reaches capacity

Alex, a 38-year-old farmworker from Brazil, made the move to Martha’s Vineyard seven months ago; he’d been promised housing and employment with a local company.

When he first arrived, Alex found a job as a trade worker, as well as temporary lodging with an acquaintance. But he was forced to find a new living situation shortly after.

With no prospects, Alex, and an acquaintance, also in search of work, ended up living out of a van for the rest of spring and throughout the peak summer season. 

“Two people in a minivan, it was very uncomfortable,” he recalls. “I had no choice.”

But as the temperature dropped and winter approached, the van was no longer viable, or safe. With reduced wages, and rental opportunities lacking, Alex made the move to Harbor Homes’ winter shelter on the day of its opening, Nov. 1, despite working 30 hours a week.

In the meantime, he continues to support his family back home, while he sleeps at the Oak Bluffs shelter, grateful for a place to stay.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “Everyone is caring, and we’re treated very well … like people.”

With hopes to eventually earn enough money to have his 3-year-old child join him in the U.S., and despite the precarity of his living situation, Alex says he remains hopeful. “It’s a country of opportunities,” he said.

Alex shared his story with The Times less than two months after opposition to a proposal by Harbor Homes to operate a new winter shelter in Oak Bluffs prompted the withdrawal of the request to local officials. He is one of a number of guests that we spoke with who are currently employed, but are struggling to find housing 

Since opening for the season on Nov. 1, nonprofit reps say, the facility is experiencing a record number of overnight guests at the temporary homeless shelter at the Martha’s Vineyard Community Services campus.

This fall, Harbor Homes had entered into a contract to acquire 21 Hudson Ave., formerly used to house employees from the Pequot Hotel and the Harbor View Hotel, with the aim of converting the dormitory space into a permanent shelter facility. The final sale was contingent upon a special permit approval from the zoning board. 

Faced with both growing concerns from neighborhood residents and a costly — and lengthy — permitting process, Harbor Homes abandoned the proposal, forcing the nonprofit to start the search for a permanent location once again.

Meanwhile, the shelter — a rented building set to be demolished come spring — has already been at capacity multiple times a week since opening for the season last month.

“We’ve never been at capacity before,” shelter director Lisa Belcastro told The Times in a recent interview. “This is the first time in nine years.”

This year, the facility, a refuge for those ranging in age from 18 to over 70, is also seeing an influx of newly registered guests — individuals who have never had to rely on the shelter in the past.

What has changed since prior years? The mere absence of affordable housing, says Belcastro. “We’re really seeing the impact of the housing crisis this year.”

With the number of people registered for the shelter exceeding the 20-bed capacity, Belcastro reiterated the urgency to find a permanent location for the facility that would more adequately meet the demand for overnight accommodation. 

Currently, around two-thirds of the guests staying at the shelter are employed on-Island, year-round — another first for the nonprofit, Belcastro said. 

One such guest is 32-year-old Brian, who moved to the Vineyard from the South in March of this year, after applying for a job at an Island hotel online. 

Given housing on a temporary basis until he could figure something else out, Brian and a few coworkers signed a lease together for a house in Tisbury. 

He was still working at the hotel full-time when his lease expired in October, leaving him and his co-workers feeling the pressure to find new lodging. When the hotel reduced its operating hours during the Island’s shoulder season, Brian was able to work only part-time — all the while hunting for a new place to stay, which he says has been a struggle.

“I feel like everytime I find something, it disappears,” he said, acknowledging that the seasonality — and reputation — of the Vineyard incentivizes homeowners to rent out their residences for the maximum dollar amount. 

“Obviously in the summertime, [homeowners] are getting quadruple the amount for what their house is worth at that time,” he said.

This time of year, Brian says, he’s not been able to find an affordable room to rent, with most units going for upwards of $1,000 per month. Renting an entire house or apartment, he says, is not an option financially. 

Because of the cost of living, paired with the unique difficulties surrounding housing on the Island, Brian says he’s unsure what the future holds. 

With little help from his employer, which has informed Brian that he needs to first commit long-term to year-round employment to qualify for workforce housing, Brian has been left with no option but to rely on the Island’s winter shelter to get through the off-season.

Though his stay at the shelter — which began just days after the Harbor Homes’ facility opened this year — has been accommodating and supportive of the recent wash-ashore, Brian says the severity of the housing crisis on-Island could very well be the sole deterrent to ever putting down roots. 

“It’s a great place when it’s great, but sometimes when it’s bad, it’s really bad,” he said. 

Charlie, 40, is spending his second winter at the Harbor Homes facility. As somewhat of a jack-of-all-trades, he’s worked in the carpentry, landscaping, and restaurant industries since he first arrived on the Vineyard eight years ago.

Unlike the newer arrivals, Charlie shared that he’s less surprised about the critical housing situation on Martha’s Vineyard. 

“It’s hard to find a place here,” he said, especially considering the increasingly arduous and costly process of renting. 

In the past, Charlie got by doing the Island shuffle, moving from place to place depending on the season, often living under informal agreements, and at the whim of landlords. 

But at least renting a room was feasible. 

Gone are the days of paying $600 for a shared house; now, he noted, prices have skyrocketed, homeowners are charging tenants double or even triple what it was just years back. To rent a single room, people are often asked to pay a deposit along with first and last month’s rent. “It’s ridiculous,” he said.

Like Brian, Alex, and Charlie, many of this winter’s shelter guests are likely to stay for the duration of the facility’s operation, which ends on April 20, Belcastro says. Those relying on the shelter service are provided with not only hot meals and a warm bed, but support from shelter staff and volunteers. 

A number were born and/or raised on the Island, graduated from the regional high school, and have long-standing, generational ties to the Vineyard. Some are newcomers, and some have sought refuge on the Island after fleeing perilous or unsafe homelands, hoping to obtain economic stability for themselves and their families. 

But with limited space, and registration regulations that don’t allow for families or children under 18, the temporary shelter can only do so much.

“There’s a lot that goes into housing a family that’s different from housing [one person],” Belcastro said. Just one of these issues is creating a family-friendly environment, which is not particularly consistent with the current dormitory layout. 

The nixed plan for Hudson Ave. in Oak Bluffs had called for family housing units — something Harbor Homes reps say is desperately needed to fill just one gap in the Island’s homelessness services.

A permanent facility would enable the nonprofit to house those currently underserved, like families and victims of domestic violence, Belcastro said. 

“There are too many people who stay in an unhealthy relationship because there’s nowhere to live,” Belcastro said. 

Increased housing units and enhanced homelessness services are paramount, Belcastro said, adding that what’s also needed is more compassion, and an educated public who are willing to rethink how homelessness is addressed, and who can get behind projects like those proposed by Harbor Homes.

“These are hardworking people who work within this Island community,” Belcastro said of the shelter’s guests. “[They] can’t afford to live here.”