The Oak Bluffs select board approved $275,000 for affordable housing projects in a joint meeting with the town’s affordable housing committee on Tuesday.
The Island Housing Trust will receive $75,000 for the Veterans Supportive Housing Project, which will have 12 units on Bellevue avenue. The money, will come from the town’s affordable housing trust and will cover pre-development costs.
Select board chair Gail Barmakian asked Arielle Faria, the Island Housing Trust project manager oversee the development, if there were plans to ask Oak Bluffs for money to help cover construction costs down the line.
Ms. Faria said that the Island Housing Trust plans to use funding acquired from the Community Preservation Act, a low-interest loan through the Federal Home Loan Bank and equities with the Island Housing Trust and the Cape and Islands Veterans Outreach Center. The nonprofit also intend to apply to more community preservation funds next year.
The money was approved unanimously across both the select board and the affordable housing committee.
The Southern Tier project, which will consist of 60 units on Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road, was awarded $200,000 from the affordable housing trust. The money will cover a shortfall due to rising construction, insurance and predevelopment costs, according to Teri Bernert, the Island Housing Trust’s director of real estate who presented on the request.
Although the money to cover the shortfall was also approved unanimously, Ms. Barmakian had similar concerns regarding the project’s funding.
“I’m very particular about what’s in that fund because at one point in time it was very very low,” Ms. Barmakian said. “It’s dedicated to these two projects, which are important for our town, but it also prevents us from doing anything else.”
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