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.
Officials from the Martha's Vineyard chapter of Habitat for Humanity announced this week that they have signed a purchase and sales agreement to buy two acres of land in Edgartown.
The land is located off the West Tisbury Road near Bennett Way and, if all goes as planned, the group hopes to begin constructing two houses there late this spring.
It's apt that this news comes now, since this week also marks the completion of the chapter's first house on the Island.
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.
An initiative to build a $3.5 million dormitory for summer employees at the airport is at least two years away from completion. Members of a committee looking at the feasibility of a complex said there is much work to do, but support is widespread.
Island Housing Trust along with numerous other Island groups have completed construction on four affordable apartments at Carl Widdis Way in Aquinnah.
