Three Island residents walked away from the Tisbury selectmen’s meeting this past week with the opportunity to buy a home close to downtown Vineyard Haven for a dramatically reduced price.
Smaller in scope than other local groups, and relying largely on private donations rather than public funding, Habitat for Humanity focuses on building single-family homes for private ownership.
Vineyard housing advocates are urging the state Senate to reinsert the long-sought transfer fee tax to chip away at the Island's housing crisis.
The Oak Bluffs select board approved $200,000 for the Southern Tier project and $75,000 for a veterans housing proposal Tuesday. Both saw rising costs associated with the pre-construction phase.
A veteran housing project planned for Bellevue avenue in Oak Bluffs could break ground by next May after getting approval from the town’s zoning board of appeals this week.
A proposal to allow cities and towns across Massachusetts to assess a fee on high-end home sales has been left out of a revamped housing bill unveiled by state lawmakers last week. But housing advocates say the idea, which has long been a priority for the Vineyard, is far from dead.
On June 4, the select board debated potential amendments to town regulations that currently only allow for one rental of affordable housing on every 1.5 acres of land – limiting the number of units town housing projects can have.
