Affordable Housing’s Gordian Knot

So much has changed since 2007 when a well-meaning group, hopping to at once to save an important African American landmark and to address the Island’s critical need for affordable housing, bought the historic Denniston House in Oak Bluffs. The news that the Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank has begun foreclosure proceedings on the Martha’s Vineyard Housing Fund, which holds the mortgage on the property, marks another sad chapter in the unraveling story of the Bradley Square project. It is no use speculating whether the ambitious project could ever have succeeded, but the combination of mismanagement by the former administrator and a sagging economy ultimately foretold this week’s action.

No one can blame the community savings bank, which has a long track record of working out payment plans for people, businesses and nonprofits who fall behind on their loans and of supporting affordable housing initiatives on the Vineyard. Even the housing fund acknowledged that the bank had gone beyond what many would have to try to avoid foreclosure.

What role the fund will play in the future in light of the foreclosure action remains to be seen. Originally founded as the charitable giving arm of two housing groups dedicated to building affordable housing on the Island and a third, public group dedicated to rental assistance, the fund has changed its name and its mission statement with the goal of assuming a broader role in matching housing funds with housing needs. The Island certainly needs a strong advocate for affordable housing that can knit together and help the public make sense of the various efforts under way.

In the past few years, affordable housing has become such a catch phrase that people seem to have forgotten what it really means. In short, the downside of having high property values on the Vineyard is that there aren’t enough year-round places to live for low-paid workers who keep the economy going, the young people who want to stay on the Island, the elderly and the less fortunate. The need remains one of the Island’s most acute and pressing problems, but there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

To that end, many groups both private and public on the Vineyard are working hard to address the problem, one house, one project, one subsidized rental and subsidized ownership property at a time.

And there is much good work under way. Habitat for Humanity recently moved a building donated by the savings bank onto the Bailey Park project off Old County Road in West Tisbury, where it will be rebuilt into an affordable home on one of three Habitat affordable lots designated by the town in that area. The Chilmark selectmen are riding herd on their town-sponsored project on Middle Line Road which will include badly-needed rental housing. The Dukes County Regional Housing Authority will begin handing out a new round of rental assistance money on July 1, approved by voters in every Island town at their annual town meetings this spring. The Island Housing Trust, no longer affiliated with the housing fund, is managing the numerous properties that it has built and holds ground leases for around the Island, and is gearing up for a new project on Lake street in Vineyard Haven. The Edgartown affordable housing trust this spring launched an innovative buy-down program that is aimed at building the permanent stock of affordable housing in that town.

Each addresses a different piece of a larger puzzle, but the existence of so many groups is often confusing to the public, like a Gordian knot impossible to untangle.

A few years ago, when the economy was strong, it seemed possible to transform the landscape through a few well-funded, creative projects. Today, the reality is that we need to chip away at the needs in a variety of small ways.

Islanders can all help by giving money, or perhaps donating a few hours of time to Habitat, which is always looking for volunteers to swing a hammer and carry bundles of shingles. Or perhaps it means passing up top dollar on a summer rental to lease out instead that guest house to a young person in her first job on the Island, or an elderly person living on a fixed income.

But the Island needs a cohesive, well articulated plan by which these small efforts can add up to something bigger. If the fund can play that role, it would be a good service.

This is by all accounts a precarious time when the essential everyday working Islander’s way of life is at stake — and very much at risk.