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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The fight for affordable housing on the Island cannot be won without a serious wad of cash, according to the activists for cheaper housing.
On Wednesday night at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury, advocates unveiled a plan that could funnel millions of dollars into the effort on the Vineyard and promise tangible results as early as next year in the form of cash for land and houses and subsidies for rent or down-payments on homes.
