The Long Haul
We’ve come so far. There’s further to go.
Here’s the story of a little island making big waves:
NOVEMBER 2020The beginning
Deep in COVID, watching real estate prices soar and the island’s workforce leaving, two housing advocates wondered if it wasn’t time to resurrect the old housing bank campaign. (It had failed twice, coming close as far back as 2005 before being knocked down by the MA Real Estate lobby).
They put the word out and formed a Steering Committee of Islanders and washashores, young and old, from every town.
The group Zoomed on Saturday mornings. From couches and kitchen tables, over countless cups of coffee, in PJs, with family members peeking into the frame, “they” became “we.”
MAY 2021Creating a vision
We drafted a vision for the housing bank, shared it widely, asked for feedback, and integrated it.
DECEMBER 2021Taking it to the towns
We pitched An Act Establishing the MV Housing Bank to all six town Select Boards. They endorsed it!
APRIl-May 2022Taking it to the people
Landslide majorities in all six towns approved An Act Establishing The MV Housing Bank at both town meeting and the ballot box.
JULY 2022The Housing Review Board
A Housing Bank Review Board was appointed by our six towns to consider amendments to An Act Establishing The MV Housing Bank. They made no substantive changes.
JANUARY 17, 2023The Bill Goes to Beacon Hill
Senator Julian Cyr and Representative Dylan Fernandes formally filed An Act Establishing the MV Housing Bank.
MARCH 23, 2023Martha Goes to Beacon Hill
We shipped up to Boston 300 strong! We met with legislators, rallied on the capitol steps, and generally knocked legislators’ socks off. Weeks later, the place was still buzzing!
OCTOBER 18, 2023The Affordable Homes Act
Governor Healey filed a historic housing bond bill (The Affordable Homes Act), including a statewide local option for a transfer fee
Thanks to supportive written and oral testimony from the Island, The transfer fee sailed through the Joint Committee on Housing and the House Committee on Bonding before landing on the desks of the House Ways and Means committee.
We flooding Way and Means members with hundreds of emails, and made calls, morning to night. Despite all the noise, Way and Means cut the transfer fee out of the bill.
The transfer-fee-less bill passed first in the House, then in the Senate.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee declined to reinstate the provision and it was not included in the final legislation...
SUMMER 2024How the Sausages Gets Made
Thanks to supportive written and oral testimony from the Island, The Affordable Homes Act (AHA) sailed through the Joint Committee on Housing and the Joint Committee on Bonding.
When it arrived before the House Ways and Means Committee, we flooded members with hundreds of emails, and made calls, morning to night. Despite our pleas, Way and Means cut the transfer fee out of the AHA.
The (edited) AHA passed on the House floor, and was referred to the Senate’s Ways and Means Committee. Senate Ways and Means declined to reinstate the transfer fee, so it was not included in the final legislation...
2026In it for the Long Haul
By mid-year, we had something new to bring to those meetings: an independent study from the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute, analyzing exactly what a transfer fee would mean for Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The findings were clear that a modest fee on high-end transactions works, and it doesn't hurt the market. We weren't just making the moral case. We had the data to back it up.
2025Playing the Long Game
The transfer fee didn't survive the Affordable Homes Act, but the campaign didn't stop. Big legislative change rarely happens in one clean pass, especially when you're up against well-funded, well-practiced opposition that's very good at slowing things down.
So we went back to the fundamentals. We kept gathering testimony from Islanders living this crisis firsthand. We kept meeting with our legislators, again and again, making the same case in a hundred different rooms: Martha's Vineyard should have the right to solve its own housing problem, the same way it already does for open space.
PRESENT DAY
The 2026 legislative session has closed, and the transfer fee did not make it into any bill this time either.
We won't pretend that isn't hard news. But six years in, we've learned this campaign is measured in sessions, not months. We're already regrouping and building our plan for the next legislative session and just like every step before this one, we'll need the Island's voice behind us: testimony, endorsements, and support for the coalition's work.
This fall we will be working together to formulate strategy for the next legislative session, which begins in January of 2027.
We'll be in touch soon with specifics on how to help. In the meantime, the work continues.