The ribbon was officially cut last week on the largest affordable housing project the Island community’s seen in two decades. It took more than ten years to complete.
Around 50 attendees gathered on a rainy Thursday afternoon this month for the ceremony at the Edgartown site, as housing advocates praised the effort to provide affordable units for the families who are increasingly citing that they are struggling to stay on the Vineyard.
And with the snip of large scissors through a green ribbon with large scissors and a few speeches, Meshacket, which translates to “Great House” in the Wampanoag language, was opened.
Edgartown Town Administrator James Hagerty said in a speech that the town is invested in building affordable units because members of the community are invested in propelling the cultural and economic fabric of the Vineyard forward.
When a town stops maintaining that balance and ensuring young people can stay in the place they contribute to, he said, “All at once, the town dies. Without young people, without communities like this, the town will turn completely seasonal, and the town dies.”
Located at 38 Meshacket Road in Edgartown, Meshacket Commons is a small community in itself. It consists of 36 rental homes and four ownership homes. Single-family homes are positioned closely together on the more than six-acre property, each with a small front yard. A connective walking path loops through the area. In the center, a multi-use building is open for use by all inhabitants, named the Mark Hess Community Center after the now retired Edgartown affordable housing committee member who pioneered the project with the town.
“We’re seeing the effects of the housing crisis more clearly than ever. Essential workers are being forced to commute off-Island because they can’t find a place to live,” Philippe Jordi told the crowd on Thursday. Jordi is the CEO of Island Housing Trust, the affordable housing nonprofit that managed the construction of the new neighborhood.
The entire project cost $34 million to build, and took nearly 11 years of approvals and construction. It will provide homes for more than 100 Island residents and families, and was created in partnership with Affirmative Investments and the town of Edgartown, among many other donors and collaborators. All of the houses are deed-restricted as year-round and affordable.
Jordi said the affordable units “couldn’t have come any sooner” for those Islanders who are scrambling for housing. Just this month, other large housing projects in Edgartown, namely the 40B projects Green Villa and Edgartown Gardens, were also approved, but not always with the same vigor or regional support. Chapter 40B is a state law that allows municipalities to approve affordable housing developments if at least 20 to 25 percent of the units have long-term affordability restrictions.
One of the families who won the housing lottery, the Lowes, said their new Meshacket property was their only shot at homeownership on the Island, where the median home price often exceeds $1.5 million.
“There’s no other place I would rather raise my children, and I’m not sure where I would be if we had not won this lottery,” Kate Lowe said. Lowe’s husband and two young children were also in attendance.
The Meshacket Commons project was built on town-owned land, and due to its affordability, will add units to the subsidized housing inventory (SHI) in Edgartown. So far, none of the Island’s towns besides Aquinnah meet the state standard that 10 percent of all housing units in a county be affordable.
However, not all units in Meshacket Commons will contribute to the town’s SHI, which only takes into account homes and rentals that are available to those making 80 percent or below of the median income. The 36 rental units will go towards the SHI in the town, adding about 1.5 percent of affordable stock to the total.
On the Island, the income needed to afford a home is $300,000 annually, according to data collected by the University of Massachusetts Amherst Donahue Institute in May.
The Meshacket rental units were made available for year-rounders who make between 30 percent and 110 percent of the 2025 Dukes County area median income (AMI), which is between $31,550 and $115,600 annually for an individual, and $45,050 and $165,100 annually for a family of four. The homeownership houses were available to Islanders making between 90 percent and 120 percent of AMI, or between $137,970 and $180,100 annually for a family of four; these units won’t go toward the SHI.
Hagerty said the availability of the units to Island families is a win for the town, even though it took a long time to culminate.
“Edgartown is a town that follows through. And I think Meshacket is proof of that,” Hagerty said in his speech. “I drive by this development on my way home, and over the past few weeks, I started to notice things: bikes in the yard, kids outside, the sound of a neighborhood coming to life. And I thought, ‘That’s what 10 years of work looks like … and that’s most importantly what follow-through looks like.’”