YOUR TURN: Missed opportunity for affordable housing in Dennis
The recent failure of Dennis Town Meeting to approve the use of $300,000 in Community Preservation Act funds for The Columns historic preservation and housing project is troubling for several reasons, not the least of which is the loss of four affordable housing units.
We are in the midst of an affordable housing crisis on Cape Cod, which is guaranteed to continue unless we all act to address this very real problem.
According to federal guidelines, housing is affordable when a household earning 80% of the area median income (AMI) can rent or purchase a home and not pay more than 30% of its income for housing costs. The AMI for Barnstable County is $85,000. At this income level, a family could afford a $250,000 home and not be financially stressed. In November 2021, the median sales price of a home in Barnstable County was $650,000.
In a 2017 study, the Cape Cod Commission found that for households earning 80% of AMI, there was a deficit of 21,924 affordable homes and 4,441 affordable rental units, and that only 18% of the current demand was being met for homes and 49% for rental units.
Furthermore, they found that by 2025, an affordable home on Cape Cod is predicted to be unobtainable by 50% of the population and the demand for seasonal homes alone is predicted to exceed the projected total increase in housing stock.
These figures do not bode well for young people and families that grew up on Cape Cod and want to make their permanent home here, for most of the blue collar workers in the service sector, and for recent college graduates and young professionals.
Exclusionary zoning is the term that is used to describe regulations that prohibit, ban, or otherwise exclude certain types of construction within specific boundaries of a community. The regulations are enacted to influence the look and feel of neighborhoods and villages to fit the desires of residents. Most exclusionary zoning is focused on maintaining single-family homes on individual lots and limiting or banning multi-family and high density development.
On Cape Cod, much of the large-lot zoning, requiring from one to three acres for a single-family home, was in response to rampant development in the 1970s and 1980s, and was enacted out of concern for natural resources like open space, drinking water, and coastal estuaries.
Exclusionary zoning is what drove the Massachusetts legislature in 1969 to enact its Low- and Moderate-Income Housing Act. Chapter 40B set a goal of 10% affordable housing units for each community in Massachusetts. As of the latest figures available from the state, no Cape Cod town exceeds the 10% goal, which in a number of Cape Cod communities does not come close to meeting the affordable housing need.
Because of zoning prohibitions in Cape towns and due to sky-rocketing construction costs, developers are not building affordable housing simply because it is not profitable. Economists would say that there is a market failure on Cape Cod, where demand for affordable housing outstrips supply.
To correct market failure government needs to intervene. To have any hope of improving the situation, towns need to relax zoning to make it easier to build multi-family units, higher density developments, and mixed use districts. More importantly, towns need to subsidize development of affordable housing either by providing land or by direct cash subsidies. Subsidies can be in the form of financing affordable housing trusts with appropriations from general funds, room and meals and short term rental taxes, and through cash subsidies to specific projects.
One way to do this is using Community Preservation Act funds, which is a completely appropriate use of these funds. In fact, participating towns are required to spend at least 10% of their CPA funds on affordable housing.
In order to close the affordable housing gap, Cape Codders need to recognize the affordable housing crisis that we are facing, elect representatives that will support inclusionary housing policy, and vote at town meeting for affordable housing proposals, including subsidizing private sector development.
Daniel W. Santos is a resident of Barnstable.
Americans are entitled to live in dignity, with the security of knowing they have a secure home, a hot shower and a clean bed.
Not everyone needs a McMansion with acres of lawn to maintain.
