Summer Shuffle Is Summer Catastrophe This Year

Maia Coleman Thursday, April 15 2021 - 6:16pm

Stories of fruitless housing searches and expiring leases are not new on the Island. But this year, the perennial challenge of finding season-long summer housing has reached new heights

Evelyn Higgins is looking for an apartment for her family of three but hasn’t come up with anything yet. Emily Sobel was hoping for a year-round house but is renting a single room instead. Caylin Kennedy needs a room for her summer job but has begun making other plans. Chelsea Payne rejected a contract on the Island because she couldn’t find a house.

Stories of fruitless housing searches and expiring leases are not new on the Island, where for many the Vineyard shuffle — a twice-annual move from summer rental to off-season housing and back — has reliably marked the changing of the seasons for decades. But this year, the perennial challenge of finding season-long summer housing has reached new heights as the confluence of a lingering pandemic, a record-shattering real estate market and most recently, an explosion of pricey short-term and vacation rentals, turn what has long been a bad situation into a near crisis for many.

“I think it’s just the pinnacle of what has been building up for a really, really long time,” said Ms. Sobel. “I think this was always coming, and that everyone has seen this coming.”

Conversations with renters, business owners and affordable housing experts this week painted a troubling portrait of an Island in crisis, as the challenge of securing affordable housing poses fresh threats to the Island community and infrastructure at every level.

At the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, chief financial officer Ed Olivier said the hospital has struggled to find housing this summer for about 160 emergency room and ancillary physicians who return each year to staff the hospital through the busy summer months.

Typically, the hospital provides housing from 58 properties — most of which are rented — to its seasonal employees, but a number of those houses have recently been sold or otherwise taken off the market, he said.

“We’ve lost more than normal, in a typical year, and we have not been able to pick up as many places,” said Mr. Olivier. For the hospital solutions have included housing summer workers in the homes of full-time employees or converting administrative spaces in hospital-owned housing into bedrooms.

Islanders from all walks of life — whether in search of year-round situations or season-long leases — agreed the search has been more challenging than ever.

“It’s very been very difficult overall because when you think you find a place that’s really good, they throw you a curveball,” said Evelyn Higgins, an Islander currently living in a studio apartment with her fiance. Ms. Higgins, who is pregnant with her first child, said she’s been searching for more stable year-round housing for her growing family since the fall. She is due in two weeks.

“We just want something that’s going to be a better environment for the three of us,” she said.

Ms. Sobel, an Islander and owner of Dock Street Coffee Shop, has been renting both long-term and seasonally since moving back to the Vineyard in 2016. After searching for a year-round two or four-bedroom this winter, she has settled for now on a room in a shared house. David Ferguson, a single father who shares custody of his young son, has looked for family-suitable housing for nearly a year but has come up short.

“I think it would be easier if I was a single person but having my son . . . it makes it far more complicated,” he said. “This year I’ve just given up because there’s nothing out there.”

A Facebook group devoted to long-term housing inquiries, called MV Long-Term Housing Rentals was flooded with a staggering volume of requests, far outweighing available inventory.

David Vigneault, executive director of the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority, has 270 households on an ever-growing wait list.

A housing needs assessment conducted by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission in 2020 found year-round housing stock has decreased by 603 units — or 8.3 per cent — over the past two decades. Seasonal vacation homes, on the other hand, have increased by 15.4 per cent, or 1,428 units in the same period.

As the market booms, rental prices have climbed too. Average monthly rents on the Island have risen from $1,180 in 2010 to $1,459 in 2020, according to the assessment, while a growing trend of renter displacement due to the sale of homes has exacerbated the problem, with more people entering an increasingly competitive market.

Many renters, including Ms. Higgins, said they’ve struggled to afford the few rentals still available on the market.

Others are simply not finding anything at all.

Caylin Kennedy, who works as a summer traffic officer in Edgartown, said with no leads so far, she has begun looking for alternative summer jobs in her hometown of Leominster. “I’ve searched high and low for everything . . . I love the Island and I loved the traffic officer position . . . [but I’m] weighing the costs and benefits,” she said. Chelsea Payne, a physical therapist from Cambridge who specializes in home health, has canceled her plans for a three-month contract on the Island this summer. “I did not have any leads at all for housing — not even an offer that was out of budget, just no offers at all,” she said.

The affordable housing crisis continues to take a toll on Island businesses too.

Doug Abdelnour, owner of Nancy’s Restaurant and Noman’s in Oak Bluffs, said the lack of housing has already dealt a blow to his summer staffing, which is down almost 50 per cent this year as long-time employees decline to return.

“I’m losing some like really key people who have been with us for a long time . . . There’s not one department that we have solidified this year,” said Mr. Abdelnour, speaking of both his restaurants.

In past years, Mr. Abdelnour has provided housing for 25 summer employees. This year, he has begun putting people in his own home. But that’s hardly a solution, he said.

“It’s so bad now that we’ve stopped from saying we need to find ways to rent more houses because it’s just not even a possibility,” Mr. Abdelnour said. “Most of our meetings with our management team over the last couple of weeks have all been, how do we downsize, how do we limit the menu . . . how do we make this work?”

At Coast Guard station Menemsha, Justin Longval said the agency can provide up to seven residences for its employees with families, but those without partners or children have to find housing themselves. Of the 23 guards at the station, he said four have chosen to live off-Island and commute to work instead.

At Dock Street, Ms. Sobel said she hoped to provide employee housing in the future, but that plan remains far off. “Right now, I’m searching for housing for myself,” she said.

“We’ve been feeling it for years but this year is magnified,” Mr. Abdelnour said. “It won’t be long before this trickle down effect of poor service, not just at a coffee shop and a restaurant, starts to happen.”

Mr. Olivier said as of Thursday, he’d found housing for all incoming hospital employees but one. But he said the problem looms large.

“My sense is that this will probably get worse over time until there’s a way to create density in housing on the Island so that things can be more affordable,” said Mr. Olivier. “We can’t run half an ER for the summer. That would not be fulfilling our mission, so we don’t do that,” he said. “We would just have to figure out a way to bring in the people who we need.”

Comments

Greed runs the island

Charlie Callahan So Boston/Edgartown

Greed runs the island

Greed is everywhere my friend

Jim Edgartown

Greed is everywhere my friend... just ask your last 3 mayors and our last 3-4 house speakers... I can go on and on... it’s not just on MV

What does that even mean?

Mark Edgartown

What does that even mean? Real estate and cost of living in the Northeast is much higher than the rest of the country.

Interesting to hear how the

fact checker edg

Interesting to hear how the hospital 'struggled' to find housing. My friend inherited a home in VH and tried to 'do the right thing' and rented year round to a hospital employee. The lease was initiated at a very fair monthly rate on a year round basis. The employee decided to quit the hospital in the spring, but chose to 'occupy' the house at the year-round rental rate enjoying the summer season here relaxing. She departed the Island in the fall, and stiffed my friend by not paying the lease until its conclusion of the contract which was February/March. So much for 'doing the right thing'. My friend was deprived of the ability to get big summer$$ rental money AND the loss of 5 months of below market monthly lease $$ and was disgusted by the whole process, and ultimately sold the property which the new owner will use. So if the hospital wants property made available, then they should step up to the plate and honor the rental contracts because every time a landlord like this gets 'stiffed' by a supposedly 'great' tenant with the 'safe income stream' from the hospital, another property disappears from the year round rental market. I have personally owned rental property on the island and could fill this comment section with my 'experiences' with year-round and winter rental horror stories. Its an unfortunate reality that so many landlords have horrible experiences with tenants that fewer properties will become available. My friend did the year-round thing against my advice. And she was 'rewarded' by getting stiffed.

It doesn't sound like the

Dan Larkosh West Tisbury

It doesn't sound like the hospital played any role in "stiffing" your friend. And the employee paid the lease "at the conclusion of the contract"? I am not certain what you are complaining about. "Stiffed" means one who agrees to pay for something and then doesn't pay after accepting the full value of the goods and/or services. From your post that didn't happen here.

Allow me to clear this up.

klw West Tisbury

Allow me to clear this up. The hospital did not "stiff" me on the rent. What happened was between me and my tenant. However what did happen with the hospital is a bit disappointing because their housing administrator refused to consider my rental when it became available again. Although my property was very desirable for their needs they said they couldn't trust me because I stole their tenant, which they had so carefully vetted, and therefore would not consider entering into a contract with me again. Although I did not renew my lease with them I certainly didn't break it and I provided them with everything they required for their rental contract. At the end of the year's lease (march 1) I chose to work directly with my tenant. She was losing her housing benefit from the hospital and would then have had to pay them for the rent, and had been told she would need to vacate the house in August so they could house someone else. At that point I didn't think I needed permission from the hospital to decide how to rent my house going forward. Yes she was their employee but her housing benefit had expired, she still needed a place to live and I had a house to rent.

To be clear the lease was

fact checker edg

To be clear the lease was directly with the employee who stiffed my friend.

There seems to be a few

Michael OB

There seems to be a few missing facts in this tirade...

Catastrophic indeed, and we

Mitzi Pratt Aquinnah

Catastrophic indeed, and we have seen this coming for decades, that’s why the Housing Bank concept is being tried for the third time in 20 years. PLEASE visit ccmvhb.org and support the effort! This will help in the long term but we need immediate action from many directions yesterday. Do we really want our doctors, teachers, farmers & emergency responders commuting? The Coast Guard Station is a long way from Woods Hole, do they take their own boat back and forth? The situation has become obscene.

$19+ Million to the Land Bank

The Kids Aren't Alright Vineyard Haven

$19+ Million to the Land Bank last year (14 mil in 2019) and properties bought keeping land values impossibly out of reach..

The argument that the island is just a resort and has limited space, therefore the Land Bank and the proposed housing bank are at odds is not only nonsensical, it will result in the end of everything and everyone that makes OUR HOME so special. Families who have been here for 3/4/5+ generations are being forced out for good.

Don't pay any attention to the mental illness and drug addicts who cope with the loss of all the childhood promises and dreams systematically stolen by the abject neglect by town leaders to enforce illegal rental legislation within a dramatically changing system (airbnb properties) pricing us out of ANY CHANCES to work any of the actual jobs available to us and simultaneously afford a home and families of our own.

Who will want to visit a place where all the businesses are grossly understaffed and outrageously overpriced?! There are other beautiful beaches and conservation properties in New England.

What makes MV beautiful has been disappearing and soon to be gone forever people. Soon Jaws will just be another old movie and Belushi a mythology. Private chefs will hide in McMansions and the passionate families who made legendary communities will be gone.

But hey, maybe then MV will really live up to it's nickname and just be another plain ROCK some glacier dumped into the ocean.

The same old “there won’t be

Al Reis Edgartown

The same old “there won’t be any nurses or teachers or firefighters “ jeremiad we’ve been hearing for 40 years- and somehow were all still here....

I have a great idea but don’t

Cynthia Chamberland Edgartown

I have a great idea but don’t know who to share it with. So many cruise ships are available due to such a decline of travelers. And entire ships are sometimes auctioned. As long as the harbormasters agree to a parking space either at a dock or in the harbor, you could get a ship with up to 1000 rooms each with their own bathroom. Please pass this idea on to anyone that can help execute it. What a mess!

That is a good idea -

skip OB

That is a good idea - unfortunately those type ships are too big and ride too deep for our relatively shallow water

Great idea. Those European

Paul T Edg & CT

Great idea. Those European river cruise boats could work.

It's the same situation here

Linda Nantucket

It's the same situation here on Nantucket. Hold on to your boot straps because it's going to be a wild ride this summer. People are going to need to be patient with businesses that are shorthanded due to lack of employees due to lack of housing.

Please visit CCMVHB.ORG to be

Kimberly Angell West Tisbury

Please visit CCMVHB.ORG and join to be part of the solution.

The Island could have leased

Markus David New York

The Island could have leased part of the airport for a developer to build dormitory like housing for summer rental employees, since it's connected to the public MV bus line. But the government you all pay your taxes too is too busy making sure there is enough pretty open landscapes for the new wealthy estate owners to view! Tough luck.

Do your homework. Your 'taxes

fact checker edg

Do your homework. Your 'taxes' don't pay for the airport. Its self sufficient via Federal excise taxes on fuel,airline tickets, local landing fees, parking fees,rents and contributions from the aviation trust fund *user fees* from throughout the national airspace system on tickets, jet fuel, avgas and Federal excise taxes on charter flights. The FAA *Federal Aviation Administration* is quite clear what is and what isn't allowed at an airport. Be thankful they have allowed the business park. It's not there to cure all of the island's problems but it has done a terrific job of hosting plenty of non-aviation businesses that allow the airport to be self sufficient.

SOOOOO VERY TRUE AND WELL

Bobbie Lima West Tisbury

SOOOOO VERY TRUE AND WELL PUT....ONLY THE WEALTHY...ASK THE HOMELESS WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME THEY ENJOYED ALL THE "OPEN LAND"

Like many, I love this island

MM Edgartown

Like many, I love this island for all that it has to offer. And a great deal of that affection comes from the community that makes the island economy thrive - shop-owners, restaurants/bar workers, businesses supporting the seasonal population surge, etc. Through the pandemic, we all have negatively experienced what island life is like without the robust and vibrant pulse of the community humming along and we are all hoping for better days ahead. However, the housing crisis certainly can and has destructively impacted the vibrancy of businesses on a much longer term basis if we cannot collectively derive and put into effect a solution to support the people in need.
I support the work and vision of the Land Bank and Sheriff’s Meadow in procuring and preserving open space, but if we were unable to support the critical housing needs of the local community to the point where people are forced off-island, I question whether the missions of such organizations could be altered, or a new entity created, to use funds to buy land and build a housing supply with a focus on supporting island families.

It is time for the SSA to run

james Oak Bluffs

It is time for the SSA to run a commuter fast ferry. A few trips in the morning and a few trips in the afternoon/ evening. A15 Min ferry ride would make for the commute to be feasible. Employers would cover the cost. At the very least they should try a pilot program.

Sadly there’s no housing over

Sue Falmouth

Sadly there’s no housing over on the main land either and businesses struggling to find help!

go see how many people are

james Oak bluffs

go see how many people are already getting off the steamship and patriot boat every day. If that commute was made easier then it can be part of the solution. I have 6 employees currently looking to relocate to the mainland and they would love to retain their employment here

And what about the people who

People live here Vineyard Haven

And what about the people who have called this place home for generations?!?

Ships in the harbor and fast

Barbara Welsh Oak Bluffs

Ships in the harbor and fast ferries? No. The business community needs summer housing. Seems like the land at the Business Park can and should be used for apartment buildings for couples and single workers. Sure, there are obstacles but they could be worked out.

Same conversation that only

George Stein

Same conversation that only one business owner has found a way to create actual plan of housing being constructed. Talk is cheap

Over the last 50 years

BS Oak Bluffs

Over the last 50 years Islanders have overwhelming fought affordable housing via zoning initiatives at town meeting. We could have plenty of affordable housing if we allowed 10 story apartment buildings which would necessitate larger roads with turning lanes and traffic lights and malls and sewer plants and larger police departments and full time firefighters etc. We could be an all out suburb or perhaps a new city. All the hand wringing stops when those solutions are proposed.

The Island is being loved to

Sarah G VH

The Island is being loved to death. Some can make it here, some cannot. Always been that way, will always be that way.

"The Island is being loved to

Jeni Z West Tisbury

"The Island is being loved to death." Well said.

I understand that the island

Looking for Housing Tisbury

I understand that the island wants to keep its agricultural roots and pastoral charm, however it is 2021! and many (not all) of the island’s “farms” and “pastoral” acreages are purely aesthetic! I am all for locally grown food... but why are the zoning bylaws not being updated and stuck in the 1800’s and earlier... Why do the lot sizes need to be so big... Why not look to more alternative and progressive living concepts on these pieces of land, such as tiny home communities...Tiny homes can be designed to be totally attractive and fit right into the charm of the island, and rolled away in an instant.. And built under 100,000 (May come in handy with rising sea levels, storms, climate change) how about Co-Housing... Scandinavia knows how to do this well! Single parents, elders, Young families, you name it living together with their own private spaces with shared resources kitchens, gardens etc....

“Septic” seems to be the issue for tiny homes etc... and lots of money there for certain folks by the way (how many folks on town board have their hands in that piggy bank... had to say it! in many parts of the world “composting toilets” are perfectly accepted and encouraged.... the technology is out there for clean and safe composting...it’s not just for hippies or music fests anymore ...Yes... it doesn’t put as much money into the pockets of Septic Guys/Gals, but we need to evolve....composting is a powerful tool for minimizing water use and has virtually no negative effect on the environment if done responsibly.... Look at what’s Happened to Chilmark Pond... need we say more!! The West Tisbury Library” they have successfully implemented composting toilets...

We don’t just need more

Nina West Tisbruy

We don’t just need more affordable housing, we need housing that is affordable (within reason). Two income households that don’t qualify under the affordable guidelines, but also don’t make enough to buy a house here, need to be included in the solution too. So far, they are not.

I grew up here. I have a young family, my partner and I are both professionals. We can’t even get on a list for housing because we don’t qualify. We also don’t have the kind of savings or income it takes to buy the houses at the “low end” of the market here. And that’s pre-pandemic.

I think the people on the committees need to recognize and remember that the cost of living is high. Childcare is exorbitant. Student loans are untenable. Food and utilities are crazy. A change in zoning, the addition of middle market housing (without median and 130% median income qualifications) is also necessary. If we don’t keep the professionals and the families in mind, it will be tough to sustain a community in 5,10 or 20 years.

I would like to see

Carol Vineyard Haven

I would like to see alternatives to building more and more houses on the island. Could there be some sort of rent subsidy program that would make it feasible for rental property owners to switch from short term vacation rentals to longer leases? $1400/mo. provides a homeowner $16,800 gross yearly income. Compare this to what can be made with a nightly rate of $300 for a modest cottage, and it is clear which option currently makes the most sense.

And what about the islanders

BS Oak Bluffs

And what about the islanders who make a living from short term rentals? Are you proposing taking their livelihood away? Short term rentals employ housekeepers, rental agents, caretakers, landscapers etc. They are a major source of income for many islanders.

Yes; bc short term rentals

Nancy

Yes; bc short term rentals are a luxury. Emergency workers and teachers trump landscaping crew.

To @ Jim from Edgartown. You

Charlie Callahan So Boston/Edgartown

To @ Jim from Edgartown. You are right I grew up in the projects in southie and Boston is probably the most corrupt city in the country.There was an old saying if you don't pay, you don't play. But you would think it might be different here,the only difference between this place and where I'm from is it's not violent,but it is disgusting the way working people are looked down on.Been here and retired for 40 years and it seems to get harder for workers here every year

Where did they come up with

Anonymous West Tisbury

Where did they come up with the average rent price.

"Average monthly rents on the Island have risen from $1,180 in 2010 to $1,459 in 2020,"

This is NOT ever close to accurate. More like $1800 to $2500 for something livable and decent. People should not be forced to work 2 jobs to survive. I do support foreign workers but we also shouldn't solely rely on it then watch the money leave the community.

I understand the argument and need for seasonal workers but people NEED year round housing aswell.

It is shocking that nobody

Mark Edgartown

It is shocking that nobody has identified the root issue. The fact that there is no sustainable economy outside of tourism depresses the average income for most islanders. There is no way to commute en masse to employment centers and cities as you can do on the mainland. Do you think everyone that lives in affluent towns like Wellesley or Concord works in their town or the immediate area? No, most commute into the city where higher paying jobs exist. MV is a resort destination and unfortunately there is no way to expand the island economy beyond that set of employment opportunities.

Has a vacant property tax

Bri WT

Has a vacant property tax ever been considered for the island?

Why is the island solution to

Mark Edgartown

Why is the island solution to everything to increase taxes? Not helpful.

What would a vacant property

Marie

What would a vacant property tax be? Tax people who close their homes for the winter? Good luck with that.

Will vacant bedrooms be next?

Already in short supply, housing for working Islanders is extra squeezed this year by the exploding vacation rental market.

Summer Shuffle Is Summer Catastrophe This Year

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