COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS

OVERDEVELOPMENT: “MVHB will lead to overdevelopment and environmental degradation.”

It will not; there are protections written in. The Housing Bank legislation requires that a minimum of 75% of funds will be committed to previously developed land; the remaining 25% is subjected to stringent environmental requirements. The MVHB will result in little new development; a fundamental purpose will be to re-capture and re-purpose existing homes that have been lost to the short-term rental market. MVHB addresses climate issues and environmental degradation while enhancing our human resources.

LAND BANK: “Instead of a new transfer fee, we should be taking half the Land Bank money for housing.”

Both the Land Bank and the Housing Bank are essential for the Vineyard. Legally, the Land Bank is restricted to preserving open space. However, by partnering it has consistently assisted aﬀordable housing eﬀorts (examples: Kuehn’s Way, Eliakim’s Way, Child Farm) and has agreed to collect and process MVHB fees to reduce administrative overhead.

Furthermore, even if the legislature would agree to change the LB legislation to allow this kind of change (which is doubtful as it changes the nature of their legislation, 60% of Land Bank revenues are committed to property management to keep properties enjoyable for all of us!) and debt service; there’s not enough Land Bank money to do both. Taking from the Land Bank is not a viable option.

NANTUCKET: “Nantucket’s Housing Bank only specifies a .5% fee; the MVHB 2% fee is too high.”

The situations are dramatically diﬀerent: Nantucket’s sales volume and median home price are both double MVY’s, (a smaller percentage brings in more revenue) and Nantucket directs a signiﬁcant amount of town funds (nearly $50 million in the last two years!) toward aﬀordable housing, including nearly ⅓ of their Short Term Rental revenue. This is exponentially more than currently allocated aﬀordable housing funding on the Vineyard. We need to catch up.

Even with projected revenues of roughly $12 million, MVHB will only be able to serve 30-50 households a year, which means it will take decades for MVHB to signiﬁcantly diminish the problem.

EXEMPTION: “The MVHB Fee will make it harder for people already struggling to buy primary homes here. The $1,000,000 million threshold seems low in the current MVY real estate market.”

The ﬁrst $1,000,000 of every transaction is exempt and the MVHB commissioners will be required to review this threshold annually and raise as needed to be certain it has little impact on local primary home buyers.

240% AMI: “Providing subsidies up to 240% of Area Median Income (AMI) is too high; nobody making that much should be eligible for anything”.

Our hospital, schools, social service agencies, sheriﬀ’s department, etc. support the MVHB because they know that it’s essential to keep our workforce in place. Current public funding can only serve people at or below 100% of Area Median Income ($104,000 for a family of four). It is important for the MVHB (which will also serve those at lower income levels) to serve higher income families who are currently shut out of the housing market as well. This crisis is depleting our essential workforce at all income levels; without assistance, this will get worse as real estate costs rise even higher.

For a family of four 240% of Area Median Income is approximately $250,000. Here are two examples of households below that cap, not served by current aﬀordable housing programs but earning too little to access the real estate market. These households could be served by MVHB:

Chilmark Assistant Assessor $104,000 + Tisbury Health Agent $104,000 = $208,000
School Teacher (average)) $75,000 + OB Police Sergeant $96,000 = $171,000

PROPERTY VALUES: “Affordable housing decreases neighborhood property values; the noise and appearance will make the Island less desirable and attractive.”

That has not happened at all to date. Getting people out of over-crowded rental housing and into stable housing will improve neighborhoods. Noise complaints generally come from short-term rentals (perhaps the number one cause of the current housing shortage), which MVHB will be able to convert to stable year round residences.ces.

POPULATION GROWTH: “This will encourage off-islanders to come here for housing, including people who want to move here to telecommute and take advantage of our schools.”

To be eligible for housing subsidies, an applicant must already have island-based income or must have a Vineyard employment contract. Working remotely does not qualify. The Dukes County Regional Housing Authority estimates that there are more than 1,000 individuals and families already living here in substandard housing, waiting for opportunities. Population growth does not come from aﬀordable housing recipients.

TAX BASES: “MVHB will lower tax bases as more housing is affordable; the taxes of other residents will rise.”

All MVHB-assisted properties will pay property taxes. MVHB expenditures will have positive and negative eﬀects on the tax base, but detailed analysis by the Oak Bluﬀs town assessor indicates that overall it will be relatively minor.

WITHDRAWAL:“If the towns join the Housing Bank, they can never get out of it.”

Towns can withdraw at any time by a town ballot vote and there is an automatic 30 year sunset clause built in.

BORROWING: “The Land Bank has debt that extends to 2036 – any town opting out would still have to impose the fee until 2036 when the bond is satisfied. The Housing Bank will do the same thing.”

Unlike the Land Bank, MVHB legislation imposes a strict limit on borrowing – only 10% of average annual revenue can be used for debt service. A town voting to withdraw would continue to collect the fee only until their debt service reserve fund contained enough to pay their share of the bond. That level would be reached within 1-2 years of withdrawal.

FEES TO TOWNS: “We don’t need a regional housing bank; towns could opt for the transfer fee and manage it themselves.”

This is a regional problem that crosses town lines: people live in one town and work in another, people live in towns that they don’t intend to because that’s the only place they can ﬁnd housing, etc. Just as we need to protect our sole source aquifer island-wide, we must protect our human resources island-wide.
Towns might be able to go it alone if the statewide legislation passes; if it does not, the legislature is only likely to look favorably on our local legislation if Vineyard towns are united; without a six town vote for MVHB, we may end up with nothing.
If towns were to go it alone they would have to create new infrastructure to manage and administer the funds and projects. Consolidating this makes sense in terms of both economics and expertise.

STIPEND: “The potential MVHB commissioner stipend is a bad idea; public service should not be compensated.”

The stipend is allowed as an option only if all Town Advisory boards all agree, by a ⅔ vote of each, that it is needed to reduce barriers to public service so that a more diverse ﬁeld of people can run for oﬃce. Capped at $2,000, it’s intended to assist with childcare, transportation, and/or tech accessibility, not as compensation..

ACTIVISTS IN-CHARGE: “The housing activists who have been advocating for the Housing Bank will run it.”

The Coalition to Create the MVHB exists only to establish MVHB. The MVHB itself will be a governmental entity, subject to open meeting and ethics laws. It will be run by publicly elected Commissioners, and by Town Advisory Boards with membership appointed by the municipalities from their own boards & committees.

DESIRABILITY DECLINE: “This will be too much for buyers to bear, impacting the desirability of the Vineyard; potential buyers will pick another vacation area that’s not as costly.”

Buyers have already indicated that this is untrue as they have ﬂooded the Vineyard to buy real estate that has skyrocketed in price. In Nantucket, where real estate costs are double what ours are, high prices have not diminished demand.

TWO MARKETS: “This is going to create two separate housing markets.”

There are no existing resort areas in the U.S. where the open market itself has solved this problem. Delayed intervention only allows the problem to intensify: the longer we wait to address the situation, the more expensive the solutions become, and the longer many Vineyarders will remain in sub-standard housing or be forced to leave.