It is now almost exactly one year since Lease to Locals was introduced in Chilmark, a program designed and managed by a company named Placemate, to turn short-term rentals into long-term rentals. It is aimed primarily at working staff and families.

As chair of the Chilmark housing committee, I often get asked, “So, what have you been doing, and what are you doing, to deal with the situation we all recognize as critical?”

There’s not much chance I’ll come up with a satisfactory response: the challenge is great; we’re all hoping (and waiting) for the state legislature to approve a housing bank law that would open the way for major initiatives; there is the perennial necessary competition for real estate between conservation and housing development; construction costs keep rising; and so forth.

But there has been significant effort and progress. And as we launch the program’s second year, the Chilmark housing committee celebrates the pilot year as a success: 5 units with leases signed, 3 more units in the pipeline, 11 people housed, and more short-term rentals in the pipeline will be converted.

The program has provided stable housing for residents essential to our community: teachers, public safety workers, municipal staff and their families. The program is especially supportive of families, who make up 70 per cent of the renters in Chilmark. It’s worth noting, however, that two units rented this year sat empty, as much of Chilmark does for most of the year.

Several aspects of the program seem to account for its acceptance and popularity. One key is that the homeowners get to choose who lives in their space. Not only has this fostered a stronger relationship between the two parties, but we found occasional flexibility in rental rates with homeowners making sure their tenant could afford it. No rental assistance gets involved. With a long-term lease, homeowners receive a stable income without the fees, cleaning and other issues involved in frequent turnovers.

At this first anniversary of Lease to Locals, we are especially pleased at the program’s pace and its fiscal performance. As new housing projects work their way through several years of legal, zoning and funding hurdles, all of us working on addressing the “housing crisis” here on the Vineyard are acutely aware that we can’t build ourselves out of it, even if new construction somehow becomes less expensive.

Lease to Locals has provided much-needed housing this year with no building costs whatsoever. Started with funds from the Molly Flender Affordable Housing Trust, a 2 per cent increase in the excise tax has paid for the project entirely. In fact, more money was returned to the Housing Trust than was advanced.

For anyone interested, detailed descriptions of how it all works appear on the Chilmark town Web site— housing committee section.

Another reason for encouragement is in the process to date, from the introduction of Placemate’s founders by Laura Silber at the Martha’s Vineyard Commission to the promoting, funding and first steps of the program in Chilmark, to its likely application in other towns on the Island.

If “11 people housed in a year” seems like a drop in the bucket (and it’s certainly a big bucket), it’s a significant “drop” just the same. It’s not just more people housed in one year than in the previous four or five, it’s a clearly positive initiative that shows signs of steady development. And these things take time. Look at the path the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank forged over these past 40 years, and the combination of imagination and tenacity that has fueled the Island Housing Trust for over two decades.

Peter Cook lives in Chilmark.