When it comes to affordable housing on the Vineyard, the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority is usually involved. Its office building is off the beaten path in Vineyard Haven, behind stores and shaded by tall oak trees, and its oversight is, similarly, not often obvious.
But from lotteries for rental and homeownership properties to overseeing financial assistance programs, the authority has its hands in multiple housing pots. The organization works with affordable housing developer Island Housing Trust, Habitat for Humanity, unhoused nonprofit Harbor Homes, and all of the Island towns. And for the past six months, it has had a new executive director in charge of operations: Maria Ventura.
Ventura was born and raised on the Island, and has served on the Edgartown Affordable Housing Committee and the municipal housing trust. She’s on the board of the Great Pond Foundation and founded the annual suicide prevention awareness walk put on by Darkness into Vineyard Light.
She told The Times that her work with the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority, which focuses on providing housing opportunities for low- to middle-income Islanders, is just beginning. Ventura said she’s trying to “see things in the bigger picture” at the organization. “It’s making me more eager to see how we can grow and what we’re going to do going forward.”
Ventura took over for David Vigneault, the former executive director, after he retired in March. Under his tenure of over two decades, the organization strengthened its rental assistance program and housing lotteries. One of Ventura’s primary goals is bolstering its rental assistance even further and looking for creative solutions to real and difficult problems. And she’s already made progress.
In July, the rental assistance program raised its income limits from 80 percent area median income (AMI), which in 2026 is an annual income of $74,800 for an individual and $106,800 for a family of four, to 100 percent AMI ($114,200 for an individual and $163,100 for a family of four). Plus, two down-Island towns are piloting programs that offer assistance to even higher-income families.
“The one thing that I’m really focusing on is trying to grow the available units, not just within our organization but the rental assistance. There’s a lot of people that aren’t even aware of what we do and the AMIs that we serve,” Ventura said.
In her first six months as the executive director at the regional housing authority, Ventura said, she’s become even more aware of the housing challenges local residents face. Since the COVID pandemic, housing has become more acute for year-rounders. The population boomed by 25 percent following the year 2020, and the Island is now home to more than 20,000 year-round residents. But available units for rent and homeownership have not kept pace with the demand for the people who live here.
Terri Keech, who has worked for the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority for 24 years, told The Times that she “never feels like we hit the finish line.” She added that people build housing “as fast as they can, and it’s just not enough.”
Nearly half of all Island residents spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing. According to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, even moderate-income households can’t afford to buy a home — the area median income in 2025 was hundreds of thousands of dollars short of being able to purchase property, considering the median home price that year of $1.5 million.
The rental assistance program can fill that gap for eligible participants by paying up to half of the rent for an individual or family, but it has a waitlist. Ventura, however, urges people to apply nonetheless.
So far, the housing authority has served more than 500 households through the rental assistance program, which is funded by Island towns’ Community Preservation Acts (CPA). Through the program, tenants must work 32 hours a week and continue to pay half their rent. For the average eligible renter, the housing authority approves about $600 to $800 each month, which goes directly to the landlord.
For the most part, the CPA involvement requires 80 percent AMI limits due to town and state guidelines. But due to the higher average income on the Vineyard and steeper expenses, the housing authority is finding ways to raise that limit. The housing authority is actively working with Oak Bluffs and starting to work with Tisbury on pilot programs for rental assistance for middle-income Islanders. Oak Bluffs is in the third year of a pilot program to assist renters at 120 percent AMI.
While progress has been made, Ventura said, there’s still much to be done.
“As everyone knows, it’s an issue that’s near and dear to everyone. But really, I’m trying to figure out how to problem-solve. I like to solve,” she said.
