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.
