Count the number of listings of houses for sale in both Island newspapers and the Real Estate Guide. There is no question that there is a lot of housing on the Island market.

The perception is widespread that the Island needs more affordable and low-income housing — but why should this lead to the conclusion that it is in the interest of Martha’s Vineyard as a whole for affordable housing to be placed on land still in a natural state — finite by definition on an Island?

Are these proposed units, at half a million dollars or so each, what subsidized, affordable housing should consist of?

Would it not be better to seek grants to subsidize the purchase and retrofitting of existing housing? Why don’t we use existing structures, when possible, instead of developing new land, an irreplaceable resource?

Abigail Higgins
West Tisbury