Fallout from the Island Affordable Housing Fund’s recent shortfall in payments for the Island’s rental assistance program emerged at the Edgartown selectmen’s meeting Monday. The board approved a request from the Edgartown Housing Trust to transfer up to $10,000 of Community Preservation Act (CPA) money to assist tenants and landlords in Edgartown who are part of the affordable housing program for rental conversion.

The rental conversion program is administered by the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority to subsidize rent for tenants unable to pay the full amount. According to Trust representative Janet Hathaway, that $10,000 would provide rental assistance for nine families for the months of December and January for amounts that were previously subsidized by the Island Affordable Housing Fund. She said that the monthly subsidies range from $200 to $700 for each family.

In September, the board approved a transfer of $16,000 from the town’s affordable housing trust to help subsidize rental fees for five families living in the town’s Morgan Woods affordable housing complex, but Ms. Hathaway said Monday that the two issues were unrelated.

Ms. Hathaway told the selectmen that the housing trust is unsure whether its funding for the rental conversion program will return after January. The Island Affordable Housing Fund’s new director T. Ewell Hopkins will hold a community meeting at the Vineyard Haven Public Library on Dec. 2 at 5:30 p.m. to discuss the fund’s plans for the future.

“When they get over this hump and they have some money, does that mean that it’s now going to come back and support Edgartown?” said chairman Michael J. Donaroma, asking if the town could expect to be reimbursed when and if Island Affordable Housing revitalizes its funding. “If they start up with the subsidy again, those dollars should be the first to replace the CPA money,” he said.

Ms. Hathaway said that she doubted that the Island Affordable Housing Fund would reimburse the money.

“Our difficulty is they’re stuck,” said Dukes County Regional Housing Authority director David Vigneault. “[Mr. Hopkins] is saying that they don’t have next month’s funding, but hope to in the future.”

Mr. Vigneault said that the housing authority does not yet have enough information about how the shortfall occurred to determine what the future might hold for the fund’s contribution to the rental conversion program.

In other business, the board approved a request from the Edgartown Police Department to trade in one of two defunct police cruisers, and use the credit to purchase new equipment for a replacement cruiser. The other cruiser was approved to be turned over to the town of Aquinnah. The town approved a warrant article to appropriate $58,000 to replace the two defunct cruisers with two new vehicles at the Oct. 27 special town meeting.