With New Housing Bill, State And Local Officials See Opportunity

ORLEANS – The former Governor Prence Inn is a building that wears its age on its sleeve. Pieces of plaster and other discarded materials can be found in the walkways outside of the former hotel’s rooms, while the sign that once proudly advertised the 5.5-acre property to passersby along Route 6A has long been abandoned.

But during a ceremony held on the building’s main lawn last week, there was hope for what the future promises not just for the Prence property, but for the state of housing across the region, and Massachusetts, in the years ahead.

The former hotel, now owned by the town, served as the backdrop for a gathering Aug. 28 to celebrate the recent passage of the new Affordable Homes Act, which pledges to invest $5.16 billion in the creation, preservation and conversion of housing units statewide over the next five years.

“This truly is a celebration that we should all enjoy,” said Kevin Galligan of the select board.

Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll was on hand for the ceremony alongside other state officials, including Massachusetts Housing Secretary Ed Augustus, State Reps. Chris Flanagan, D-Dennis; Sarah Peake, D-Provincetown; and Stephen Xiarhos, R-Barnstable, and State Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, to celebrate the passage of the historic bill. 

Driscoll said the bill marks a significant step toward addressing a statewide problem that’s long been in need of a solution.

“Through no one’s fault here individually, we’ve made housing really hard here in Massachusetts,” she said. “There are lots of really hard problems in government, intractable and difficult problems to solve. Housing isn’t one of them. We know how to build housing, and we need to build more of it.”

Creating housing locally has not been without its challenges, Peake acknowledged. But she  applauded local officials for their “patience, perseverance and determination” in continuing to work at solutions on the housing front. 

“Patience not to sit back and let time slide by, but enough patience so maybe when you’re slapped down, you don’t give up and keep at it,” she said.

The bill, which Gov. Maura Healey signed into law in August, includes close to 50 initiatives geared toward spurring housing on an assortment of fronts, including affordable housing, accessory dwelling units, commercial conversions, green housing and housing for local veterans. There’s also a commitment to reinvest in state-run public housing across the Commonwealth.

“The affordable homes act will support the production, preservation or rehabilitation of more than 65,000 units of housing over the next five years,” Augustus said.

For Alisa Magnotta, CEO of Housing Assistance Corporation, the new legislation is long overdue for Cape Cod, a region where the availability and affordability of year-round housing has long been an issue. It’s an issue local officials have been struggling to get their hands around for the better part of four decades, she said, citing an annual report from HAC from 1985 that identified the need for many of the exact things outlined in the recently passed bill.

“I was shocked to read that in that annual report, we talked about the need for year-round housing, ADUs by right, the need for homeownership for our workforce for all income levels,” she said. “Anybody making $100,000 a year or less.”

The crisis has only deepened since then. The median price of a single-family home in Barnstable County is currently about $800,000, Magnotta said. In Orleans, that figure hovers closer to $1 million. Meanwhile, Magnotta said prospective homeowners need to have a household income of about $200,000 just to qualify for a mortgage.

“That’s a hard thing to do when you’re a CNA, when you're a bank teller, when you’re a newly minted police officer or teacher,” she said.

The Governor Prence redevelopment is one project that local officials are hoping will bring the diversity of housing the town needs. In June, HAC, Preservation of Affordable Housing and Habitat for Humanity Cape Cod were jointly awarded a contract to redevelop the parcel. Plans call for the creation of 61 affordable rental homes for seniors and families, 10 townhomes available for ownership for middle income tenants and seven single-family houses available for homeownership for low-income families. 

“Housing for working families is so desperate,” Galligan said. “I’m seeing an exodus, and we need to stop that exodus. We need private housing, we need public housing. But we need housing for our hardworking families.”

Driscoll said the project is a model for communities where the demand for housing extends beyond the need for affordable rentals.

“Think about it. Affordable housing rentals and homeownership on one site in a community that needs both?” she said. “Double win. It is fantastic.”

Voters authorized the town and the affordable housing trust fund board to purchase the Prence property for $2.9 million in 2021. Magnotta said HAC, POAH and Habitat are working with the town on a land disposition agreement and are also working toward applying for low income tax credits from the state. She estimated the project to be about two years away from groundbreaking.

But the Affordable Homes Act offers plenty of opportunities for communities to make headway on the housing front. The bill includes a provision allowing accessory dwelling units to be built by right without town permits. Accessory units, or ADUs, are structures on a property secondary to the main dwelling that can accommodate housing. 

The ADU provision has been celebrated by local officials, but in Orleans, zoning already allows accessory units in most cases by-right, noted George Meservey, the town’s director of planning and community development. 

“Broadly throughout the town, anywhere you can put a single-family home you can put an ADU,” he said.

“Our little town has been very much forward thinking for years on sewers and housing, so I’m very proud of our town for sticking to being visionaries,” Magnotta said.

Local and state officials also celebrated the bill’s inclusion of a seasonal communities designation that further incentivizes the creation of housing on the Cape and islands. Designated communities can create local trusts to generate revenue for the creation of missing middle housing, Cyr said. The designation also requires communities to adopt bylaws allowing for tiny homes and the merger of lots to further expand local housing options.

Cyr said any community where second homes account for 35 percent or more of the local housing stock automatically qualifies for the designation.

“Orleans? Automatically in,” he said. “Brewster? Automatically in. Truro? Automatically in.”

Magnotta last week applauded the effort that the Healey Administration put into learning about the specific challenges communities across the state, including here on the Cape, continue to face on the housing front. 

“I’m really proud of the strength and the commitment of the administration, and the fact that they did not forget about us,” she said. “They did not forget about the small towns and about rural Cape Cod and the rural parts of the state.”

Following the ceremony, Driscoll said the process of putting together the bill was eye opening as she and members of the Healey Administration met with residents, officials and business owners to better understand their issues.

“Top of mind for me was just how vast the need was, whether it’s a small town in Beckett, Mass. or down here on the Cape or up in a New Hampshire border community like Methuen or Merrimack Valley or down the south coast,” she said. “Time and time again, we hear how housing was the number one issue that local officials were dealing with. Housing was the number one issue for small business owners who couldn’t attract the talent they needed to work.” 

Magnotta said that the legwork that local and regional officials have put into addressing the housing crisis to date puts the Cape in a unique position to capitalize on the Affordable Homes funding. But it also comes with great responsibility, she said. With billions of dollars in new housing funding up for grabs, developers of all stripes are sure to want a piece, and she said Orleans and other towns need to be careful and judicious about who they partner with.

“With $5 billion of new money for housing, we’ve got to train all the boards on 30B, the RFP process and best practices,” she said.

Meanwhile, Augustus said that the work of bringing more housing across the state doesn’t end with passage of the new bill. Instead, it’s just the beginning. 

“We want to make sure that we’re as urgent with the implementation of the bill as we were with the passage,” he said.

But for the time being, Driscoll said she looks at the Prence project as an example of what local organizations and community partners can do when they come together toward a solution, especially with the funding and backing needed to make the creation of housing a reality.

“It just shows you that projects like these are possible when you have local leaders who are committed to the housing you need in these communities,” she said.