With a rare budget surplus, the state has secured $200,000 for the Martha’s Vineyard Commission to conduct a comprehensive housing and homeless prevention plan, Sen. Julian Cyr announced during a trip to the Vineyard Saturday.

Flanked by Martha’s Vineyard Commission executive director Adam Turner on side and county administrator Martina Thornton on the other, Mr. Cyr said the state’s reported $700 million supplemental budget left room to increase funding for one of the Island’s most pressing needs: housing and homeless prevention.

The supplemental budget was voted on Oct. 24.

The announcement came during a gathering Saturday at the Dukes County Administration building in the airport, with Island religious leaders, representatives from housing-based nonprofits and volunteers from homeless advocacy groups all present.

“We have a real crisis on Martha’s Vineyard when it comes to housing,” Senator Cyr said. “We have a real estate market that is largely driven by second or even third or fourth home ownership. And it’s fundamentally changed how people make their lives in a community here.”

According to testimony from Ms. Thornton and religious leaders on Saturday, the Island has approximately 100 people suffering from chronic homelessness and hundreds more dealing with the challenges of housing insecurity.

Mr. Cyr said the state money secured this fall will have a two-pronged mission: to meet the immediate needs of the Island’s homeless population and go on to develop a comprehensive housing plan that focuses on solutions to the larger, Islandwide housing shortage.

“Homelessness is one sort of urgent challenge that we have. The other is getting a sense of what our housing needs are Islandwide,” Senator Cyr said. “Homelessness is a symptom of the housing crisis.”

Part of the money — $50,000 — will go to the Dukes County commission to keep a homeless case prevention manager on staff. Karen Tewhey, who has been the homelessness prevention director, will serve in the role.

The remaining $150,000 will go to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission to develop a broader housing plan that includes identifying housing needs by town, counting Island residents who are homeless or housing insecure, analyzing wastewater capacity by town, and then enumerating the money needed to meet those needs.

Mr. Cyr said Mr. Turner came to him earlier this month with the funding proposition. Although there was always the possibility of receiving the money, it came as a pleasant surprise to Island leaders when they found out about the earmark this week.

Mr. Turner said Martha’s Vineyard is unique, not just in the complexity of its housing crisis, but in its ability to make a substantive difference with a relatively small amount of funding.

“In the four years I’ve been here, we’ve talked about housing. The issue has been discussed many, many times,” Mr. Turner said. “But this is funding to look at solutions. I think that’s the most important piece that I can discuss . . . This grant will begin to provide real solutions where we’ll be able to plan and have in place wastewater devices that we didn’t have in place three years ago.”

Mr. Cyr characterized the money as a necessary influx for an Island dealing with a burgeoning crisis. So did the rest of the room.

“I got the call from Senator Cyr on Friday night,” said the Rev. Chip Seadale of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Edgartown. “I couldn’t have been more excited.”

Reverend Seadale, along with other religious leaders present on Saturday, helps run the Houses of Grace Island winter shelter program. He said last winter someone on the Island needed shelter every night from Jan. 1 to March 31. Mr. Cyr said the money would become available for use this winter.

“This kind of thing really gives us a shot in the arm,” Reverend Seadale said. “This is a way for the entire Island community to feel hopeful.”