Efforts to further support people affected by opioid addiction on the Island, and a townwide plan to create affordable housing topped the agenda for a meeting of the Oak Bluffs selectmen on Tuesday.

Christine Todd, a member of Break the Silence MV, which works to improve addiction and recovery services on the Island, said she hopes to launch an Island chapter of Learn to Cope, a Taunton-based support network for people affected by addiction.

Ms. Todd told the Gazette that she began working to establish the Island chapter this year because attending Learn to Cope meetings meant traveling off-Island and staying overnight in a hotel.

Along with Islanders Marit Bezahler and Melissa Vincent, Ms. Todd recently traveled to Worcester to be trained as a facilitator for Learn to Cope, which has 25 chapters in the state. The next steps for establishing an Island chapter include working with a regional manager to find a location for meetings, and holding a public information session.

“We are hoping that we can get a chapter started here no later than July,” Ms. Todd told the selectmen. Among other things, she said, the chapter would offer free training in administering Nalaxone, and provide kits to those who complete the training.

“We are finding that even though it’s more accessible through the pharmacies, that’s not being taken advantage of,” she said of the drug, which temporarily reverses the effects of an opioid overdose. “So clearly there is some stigma.”

She also noted the possibility of opening a Nalaxone dispensary and launching a needle exchange program, neither of which currently exist on the Island.

On May 31, Vineyard House will host a discussion with Dr. Arthur Yu-Shin Kim, director of the Viral Hepatitis Clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Dr. Thomas J. Stopka, assistant professor of public health and community medicine at Tufts University. Both have worked extensively on the epidemiology of HIV, AIDS and other infectious diseases. The event runs from 11 a.m to 12:30 p.m.

Selectman Kathy Burton thanked Ms. Todd for her efforts.

In other business, selectmen discussed the next steps in adopting a townwide housing production plan, issued this winter by the firm JM Goldson following a series of public workshops last year. The draft plan calls for at least 68 low or moderate-income housing units in five years (about 14 per year), in order to meet a state goal of 10 per cent affordable housing stock. Similar plans were issued in other Island towns this year, with a separate plan for the Island as a whole. Only Tisbury has formally adopted its plan.

Concerns on Tuesday focused on the annual production target, which selectmen agreed was probably too high, and on making clear that the plan was not a binding agreement. “I feel like it’s guidance,” Ms. Burton said. “I don’t feel like we have to execute every single thing in there.” She and others agreed that the goals should be more realistic, although they did not settle on a new target.

Peter Bradford, chairman of the Oak Bluffs affordable housing committee, questioned whether it made sense to include households earning less than 30 per cent of the area median income, as recommended in the plan. “Our discussion basically was that if you are at 30 per cent of median income or less, you can’t really afford to live on Martha’s Vineyard at all,” he said. “You can put people in those houses and they are still going to end up living off-Island.” According to the plan, Oak Bluffs has 70 renter households earning 30 per cent or less of the area median income, but only 35 units available in that range.

The selectmen agreed to hold a joint meeting with the town planning board and affordable housing committee next month to discuss the draft plan. The meeting begins at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 20, at the town hall.