Community Preservation Comes Before Taxpayers at Annual Town Meeting

By JAMES KINSELLA
Gazette Senior Writer

Abbe Burt looks at initiatives such as the Community Preservation
Act and the Community Housing Bank, and sees important ways of
addressing the Vineyard's lack of affordable housing.

Richard Combra, an Oak Bluffs selectman, looks at the same
initiatives and sees another tax on Island residents.

It began 10 months ago as an idea.

This week, the idea took a giant step closer to reality when Aquinnah became the sixth town to support the creation of a housing bank, modeled after the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank.

The concept is called the Martha's Vineyard Housing Bank.

Now the heavy lifting begins.

In order to become law, the housing bank needs approval from the state legislature and also every Vineyard town.

Draft legislation for the proposed Martha's Vineyard Housing Bank will circulate around the Island this month as organizers seek public comment before the bill is filed in the state legislature some time in early September.

If approved at the state level - a prospect that many are calling difficult - the legislation would still need to come back to the Vineyard for another round of binding votes.

Affordable Housing Initiative Clears Key Hurdles at Ballot Box

By JAMES KINSELLA

Voters in three Vineyard towns yesterday brought the Island a step closer to the creation of a housing bank by backing the initiative and enacting the Community Preservation Act.

Approval of the CPA in Edgartown, Oak Bluffs and West Tisbury provided a crucial step on the road to establishment of a housing bank, which would be modeled on the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank.

Martha's Vineyard may have an affordable housing crisis on its hands, but it also has the community support and political will to address the issue.

And if the Island's many grassroots housing organizations cooperate in their present efforts and continue to experiment with new ones, the crisis in the long run could change the Vineyard for the better.

Report Conveys Duality in State of Housing Crisis

By James Kinsella
Gazette Senior Writer

Market forces continue to outpace efforts on the Vineyard to create
affordable rental and permanent housing.

Further, housing advocates say that while some people who could not
find housing in 2001 may have left the Vineyard, those who stayed likely
have watched the gap widen between the wages they earn and the houses
they hope to buy.

After a lengthy partisan debate, the Massachusetts state senate yesterday afternoon approved special legislation to create public housing banks on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

But with a only a month left in the legislative term and a gubernatorial veto expected, the controversial bill - which would tax some real estate transactions to fund affordable housing initiatives - still faces on uphill battle on Beacon Hill.

Housing Bank Legislation Languishes as Lawmakers Ready to Recess
Session

By IAN FEIN

With the state legislative session set to expire in 10 days, a
proposal to create public housing banks on Martha's Vineyard and
Nantucket appears to be effectively dead for the year.

The Massachusetts house of representatives dealt a crippling blow to Vineyard affordable housing advocates last week, voting 91-64 on Thursday to defeat legislation that proposed creating a public housing bank on the Island.

The vote was especially stinging because the proposal - which would have taxed real estate transactions to fund affordable housing initiatives - was already effectively dead for the year. Even if the house had approved the bill last week, it would have been subject to a gubernatorial pocket veto with no chance for an override.

A bill to establish a housing bank to fund affordable housing on the Island has cleared the Massachusetts House and is before the state Senate for consideration after failing in the House two years ago.

Rep. Eric Turkington, who represents the Vineyard, said this week he is heartened by the favorable vote by the House finance committee to create the fund, now before the Senate, that could create $2 million a year in affordable housing funds for the Island.