Harbor Homes of Martha’s Vineyard has just chopped a big chunk off its $750,000 mortgage on its home for women in Oak Bluffs.

Friday afternoon, state representative Dylan Fernandes presented the homelessness prevention nonprofit with a $300,000 check, funded by a federal grant from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

“We’re going to keep fighting for more funding for Martha’s Vineyard around housing,” Mr. Fernandes told Harbor Homes supporters who gathered at the New York avenue women’s house to meet him.

The group included Harbor Homes board chairman Edward Vincent, board members Doug Best and David Vigneault, and several representatives from the Cottagers, an Oak Bluffs philanthropic women’s group that recently donated $15,000 to support programs and activities for house residents.

The Cottagers also provide gifts for women living at the house, Harbor Homes executive director Karen Tewhey said.

In his remarks, Mr. Fernandes lauded Ms. Tewhey’s activism and promised to continue supporting homelessness prevention on the Island.

“I’ve done so much work with Karen over the years, who’s been a fabulous advocate and someone who really has our ear and some one I lean on and really trust around these issues,” Mr. Fernandes said.

“There’s so much more we have to do around housing on Martha’s Vineyard and around the state,” Mr. Fernandes told the group.

“I can tell you, as a millennial, my generation is screwed, frankly,” he continued. “It’s impossible to own a home in our district, especially on the Vineyard, where the average price is over a million dollars right now . . .  We’ve just become such a profoundly unaffordable community that it’s eroding the nature of our community,” Mr. Fernandes said.

“When we can’t have workers and firefighters and teachers, what kind of community do we become? Or even artists and the like, that make us such a beautiful, vibrant place to live?” he added, to murmurs of assent from the group. “We’re going to keep fighting for things around housing and funding, especially with ARPA money coming out — that’s what I think should be the biggest component of ARPA . . .  housing.”