DIGEST OF PROCEEDINGS AND OPTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION
Nantucket Civic League Forum on Affordable Housing, Nov. 7, 2015
Moderator Charles Stott, NCL co-president, welcomed the 65 attendees and outlined the Forum’s goals
and structure as conceived by co-president Peter Morrison.
The first panel framed the issue as a shared community pursuit. Morrison provided a brief overview to
set the stage for discussion.
Planning Director Andrew Vorce described the Town's Master Plan, which voters adopted in 2009, and
the prevailing public sentiment that the primary responsibility for affordable workforce housing lies with
the private sector. The challenge is to create housing that remains affordable as land supply shrinks and
real estate demand drives up cost. Incentives to the private sector should be identified. Zoning articles
require a 2/3 vote of approval. The Town has taken some steps to address the issue, including
streamlining accessory apartment permitting, approving tertiary dwellings and allowing apartment
buildings in certain zoning districts.
Vorce described Massachusetts Chapter 40B, requiring that 10% of communities' year-round housing
units must be affordable as defined in the statute. Only 2.5% of Nantucket's year-round housing units
meet that affordability standard (the Island presently has 121 units that qualify on the Subsidized Housing
Inventory list). Under state law, Nantucket needs 369 more affordable housing units than it now has—
that is, the Island is required to have 490 total qualifying units based on 2010 census numbers.
Selectman Tobias Glidden reviewed the role of the private sector, the public sectors, and the taxpayers in
tackling the Island’s affordable housing problem. He emphasized that Nantucket must engage on this
issue, noting that fully 18% of Boston's housing units are classified as affordable. Furthermore, lower-paid
workers who commute from off island drive down Island wages; employers here need to pay higher
wages. He reported that last year’s $1 billion in real estate sales generated $20 million for conservation
and recreational uses through the Land Bank. He noted that the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which
can own, buy, and sell land for affordable housing, is underutilized and underfunded. Housing Nantucket
receives funding through the Community Preservation Committee; and Habitat for Humanity is a great
program deserving of additional funding. Real estate costs are rising rapidly and these good programs
need funding from the tax base. He mentioned that Martha's Vineyard has 350 small houses on leased
land (called “the Campground").
The forum’s next segment focused on opportunities and constraints. It offered three perspectives: the
Town, private sector employers, and taxpayers.
Town Manager Libby Gibson noted that the Town manages to house about half of its 135 seasonal
employees in various locations. Insufficient seasonal housing frustrates certain departments’ efforts to
attract needed seasonal employees, straining essential Town services during summer months and
impacting the Island’s ability to meet the world-class standard noted at the start of the forum. The Town
would be interested to be a partner with nonprofits and potentially others in addressing seasonal housing
needs.
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Ron Foti, Stop & Shop’s mid-island store manager detailed how his company provides 11 houses for
year-round employees and rents 16 additional houses for seasonal employees. Their growing inability to
hire workers who cannot find housing on Nantucket is ominous, because it threatens to affect Stop &
Shop's capacity to service its customers.
Marty McGowan’s landscaping company, 'Sconset Gardener, has 50-75 employees who serve 100
properties. Rather than providing them with housing, 'Sconset Gardener compensates its employees well
enough to bring affordable housing within reach. The challenge, McGowan says, is the persistent lack of
available housing stock. He suggested a web-based program to match employees needing housing with
landlords, and a greater emphasis on long term (ten-year) leases, whereby employers could rent units for
their employees. He cited the Martha's Vineyard "campground" model, whereby small houses are leased
through a lottery or other system.
Cape Air’s Johann Rodriguez recounted his success locating affordable housing. It built upon an informal
recruitment of extended family members, successively drawn to jobs on Nantucket via word of mouth
over time. This tightly knit social unit managed collectively to negotiate a favorable three-year lease for a
house to accommodate its members. The arrangement has endured over time even as one individual
departs and another arrives. The key ingredient: everyone is connected to everyone else, and vacancies
are filled by word of mouth.
Cape Air’s Peter Morrison expanded upon this “extended social unit” concept, emphasizing its natural fit
with the extended family structures that are common within Nantucket’s established ethnic and
immigrant communities. He posited that a web-based "Airbnb"-type bulletin board could easily broaden
word-of-mouth contact within these tightly-knit communities and connect prospective seasonal workers
with available spare rooms that community members might willingly offer to persons known to them. The
necessary catalyst is an informal facilitator within each community—a “Johann Rodriguez” who can
trigger its capacity to increase seasonal spare-room inventory.
Next, audience members commented and posed questions. John Daniels of the Maria Mitchell
Association noted that the over 130 non-profits on island collectively have many employees and
emphasized the need for more affordable seasonal housing. Foster Hermann stressed the importance of
transportation between housing and jobs. He proposed constructing four buildings adjacent to the Public
Safety Facility complex, each housing 48 employees charged $200/week for a double room plus shared
bath, to be leased by the Town for 20 years, and owned by the Town thereafter.
Selectman Rick Atherton emphasized that employee housing is a private sector issue, as exemplified by
such employers as Nantucket Island Resorts and Stop & Shop. The Town's responsibility is limited to
providing housing as needed for its employees, and also land for affordable housing. He pointed out that
the land for Housing Nantucket, Habitat, the Housing Authority, Sherburne Commons and Our Island
Home has all been contributed by the Town’s taxpayers. Taxpayers must prioritize numerous competing
interests--affordable housing, sewer expansion, Our Island Home, and a new fire station.
The final panel focused in on the forum’s immediate objective: to identify potential solutions that could
be pilot-tested in the spring of 2016.
Stephen Maury proposed broadening the use of zoning changes to expand available year-round
rentals and ownership--for example, by increasing the number of bedrooms permitted in certain
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zones. He noted a disturbing trend for owners to rent homes only for the lucrative summer months
rather than year-round.
Henry Sanford proposed using tax incentives to expand the affordable housing stock—for example, a tax
credit linked to the Town’s affordability standard. Ground leasing has worked, and a community land
trust deserves consideration.
Assistant Planning Director Leslie Woodson Snell stressed the fundamental need for more housing stock
and the interconnections between seasonal and year-round housing. More owners (and
employers) should take advantage of permission to have garage and accessory apartments in all zoning
districts and to add tertiary dwellings.
Peter Morrison led a round of further discussion among panelists aimed at surfacing ideas worth pilot
testing in 2016. The following points were made:
 Facebook: too nebulous, according to one panelist;
 An Airbnb model connects owners and employees;
 Housing Nantucket acting as a clearing house, with landlords registering available rooms or
apartments on the website;
 Importance of facilitating seasonal workers’ connections with housing prospects well before they
arrive;
 Establishing a dedicated site (e.g., an electronic Hub bulletin board) maintained by a part-time
staff person, sponsored and supported collectively by the Chamber of Commerce and other
stakeholder associations (restaurants, landscapers, etc.).
 Enabling business owners to share in supporting such a collective effort, to raise $20-30,000 for a
part-time employee to maintain the website and facilitate the matching process; inviting landlords
to pay a fee for the service, with a registration fee paid by employees; having the part-time staff
vet prospective tenants.
 Adopting zoning changes to allow building of a dorm-like structure; increasing the cap from 8
bedrooms per structure; establishing a dormitory overlay district; allowing greater use of the
neighborhood employee housing variance; incentivizing professional landlords to create dorm-like
structures; using real estate brokers to vet tenants
Morrison noted the emerging outline of a possible consensus: An organization like Housing Nantucket (or
some other one), receiving a modest immediate infusion of resources, could launch a limited “proof of
concept” pilot-test program to link renters and owners. Owners would submit information on a website;
prospective tenants would submit an application; the organization itself would screen references,
perform background checks, and otherwise vet tenants. Owners and employees each would pay a
modest service charge.
Executing a pilot test, Morrison noted, would necessitate an immediate source of seed money for staffing
and logistics. The payoff to the sponsor(s) would be a “proof of concept” by 2016, and establishment of a
largely self-supporting private sector enterprise by spring 2017 or a public-private enterprise to put
before Annual Town Meeting in 2017.
Audience members commented. Peter Hoey of Egan Maritime Institute observed that land is expensive
and half of the island is in conservation. He called for an institutional solution, doubting that any Airbnb
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model can fix the problem. He proposed instead creation of a housing agency and the donation of 1% of
the island's conservation land for the construction of housing. He said that a precedent has been set by
the Land Bank, which donated land for a ballpark. He added that the Land Bank receives $20 million per
year and the land acquisitions drive real estate prices up. He proposed rethinking the mission of the Land
Bank and redirecting a portion of its income to housing.
Kate Hamilton-Pardee cited the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute’ website that lists available housing.
She recommended forming a task force of the Chamber of Commerce, real estate agents, the Town's
Planning Department, and others to establish a clearinghouse.
Tom Rafter favored the clearinghouse idea, but noted a real need for more housing stock. He suggested
pursuing tax incentives to encourage year-round rentals.
Jose Trillos argued for the creation of a real estate trust, a private enterprise open to any investor and
comparable to investing in municipal bonds. Mr. Trillos inquired if the Affordable Housing Trust Fund
could be this vehicle.
Andrew Vorce addressed the seven-member Affordable Housing Trust Fund, noting it has only recently
been reconstituted. In essence, it administers properties donated by the Town; it has no recurring or
reliable source of funding. The trust (which has no staff) can hold, buy, lease or sell land. It can accept
public and private contributions. The transfers of some money from real estate sales could be considered
as a source of funding, as the trust has liquid assets of only $100,000. By comparison, the Aspen, Colorado
trust is funded by the taxpayers and has 14 staff.
Rich Turer, a CPC member, said that the CPC could consider funding for Housing Nantucket (or some other
organization) for the purposes described earlier. He favors relying on the private sector to solve the yearround housing problem but is less certain it can solve the seasonal housing crisis. He believes that
Nantucket deserves better than dorm-like structures.
Lee Saperstein offered the idea of building residence halls to house seasonal workers, analogous to how
universities house attendees at conferences and offer elder hostels housing during the summer.
Nantucket residence halls configured as clusters of bedrooms around living areas could easily be repurposed to house visitors during the shoulder seasons and attendees at special events, such as the
Christmas Stroll and Daffodil Weekend. Income derived from residence halls could partially retire the
municipal bonds for funding their construction.
Planning Board Chair Barry Rector asked rhetorically about the Town’s political fortitude and expressed
the hope that we would re-engage at the November 9 Special Town Meeting. He urged Nantucket to
move forward and suggested that a grant application be made to the CPC for next year to fund the Airbnb
model. He concluded by noting that less than 3% of land that could be developed is available.
Moderator Charles Stott concluded by thanking the panelists and audience for their active participation.
Respectfully submitted: Charles Stott, Co-President.
Finalized: November 12, 2015
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