To the Editor:
The voters of Tisbury deserve a bit of recognition and praise for the leadership, support, and understanding they showed to address the need for affordable housing at the Tisbury town meeting last week (April 28, 29). Tisbury voters approved and affirmed a set of tools that will play a significant role when applied to programs that expand access to affordable housing stock. Voters approved an incentive by adopting Massachusetts General Law Chapter 59, Section 50, which provides a tax exemption for owners of properties who rent to families who qualify for affordable housing; voters rejected a proposal to remove a limit on short-term rentals, thus supporting a guardrail that prevents further erosion of year-round housing; voters approved disposal of a nonconforming town-owned parcel to be used for an affordable housing unit; and, voters supported continued funding for the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority (DCRHA) and the Tisbury Municipal Housing Trust.
The opportunity voters presented to Tisbury (and other Island?) officials is to use these tools to creatively employ a portion of our existing housing supply to expand access for year-round residents. Tisbury’s next step is to adopt administrative policies to implement the tax exemption, and register, inspect, and monitor short-term rentals. For example, with the appropriate administrative policies, an investor-owned property has the potential to earn as much or more by renting to an income-qualified healthcare, nonprofit, or public employee as they would from renting short-term for 75 nights a year, minus the headache and depreciation associated with short-term-rental “churn.”
The opportunity presented to the Island at large is twofold. First is to learn with Tisbury as we engage these tools. Will landlords find this attractive? Will the DCRHA waitlist be reduced? Will noncompliant rentals be brought into compliance? What are the fiscal implications? And second, maybe one or more other towns will join with Tisbury to make common administrative tasks more efficient. Can we monitor, register, and inspect short-term rentals through shared personnel and contracts? Can we share communication and outreach activities through “Lease to Locals” or similar function?
The Tisbury town meeting didn’t discover a path guaranteed to solve the affordable housing crises in the town or on the Island. It doesn’t exist. Rather, the voters at the town meeting displayed intelligent conversation, respectful disagreement, and an overall willingness to take steps, study them, and change them, when need be, to address the lack of affordable housing. I commend this effort, and invite others in Tisbury to join, as well as those in other towns to collaborate.
Victor Capoccia, chair
Tisbury affordable housing committee