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Affordable rental housing need termed ‘emergency’
By Pru Sowers
Banner Correspondent
PROVINCETOWN — An appeal from the Community Preservation Committee for help in developing temporary affordable rental housing fell largely on deaf ears at Monday’s Board of Selectmen meeting.
While the selectmen were sympathetic to the need outlined by the CPC, they were reluctant to do more than discuss the proposals submitted by Elaine Anderson, CPC chair.
“I’m concerned that the problem you’ve outlined is so insolvable that it will eat up too much of your energy,” Cheryl Andrews, selectmen chair, told Anderson. “I don’t know what the Board of Selectmen can do. We’ve been struggling with this for years.”
Anderson had come to the selectmen for “leadership and guidance” regarding interim rental housing for lower income residents. At a recent joint meeting of the CPC and the town’s Economic Development Council, a consensus was reached that there is a need for temporary affordable rental housing in town over the next two years.
“There was a clear sense at the meeting that this is an emergency if we are to stem the outflow of citizens from Provincetown,” Anderson told the selectmen.
The CPC then proposed four temporary solutions to the housing need, including an emergency appeal to homeowners with houses standing empty for most of the year, using modular units placed on town-owned land and a loosening of regulations to allow temporary interim permits.
“The temporary two-year interim rental properties will allow for the CPC to identify and fund ‘fast track’ rental housing in Provincetown. The goal of the CPC is to prioritize those proposals received on the Jan. 6, 2006 deadline that can build 50 rental units on one or more sites within a one to one-and-a-half-year period,” Anderson said.
Selectman Michele Couture said that using modular homes was only a “stop-gap” measure. However, she liked the CPC’s idea about using apartments over stores that often remain empty or are used for storage.
“We have to encourage the owners to make them available. A lot of them aren’t being used. To me, that’s an immediate solution,” Couture said.
Selectman Sarah Peake pointed out that if home owners were going to be asked to make their houses and condos available at a below-market rental rate, they may need to be subsidized. Subsidies and the promise of a year-round tenant may be more appealing than struggling to rent a home during the summer season, she said.
“If we can offer a package of incentives, as well as make [homeowners] aware of the needs, they may be in a better place than a Saturday to Saturday rental,” Peake said. “I think that’s a direction we can absolutely charge off in.”
But the question of where the money would come from to pay any rental subsidy went unanswered. Selectman David Nicolau said that the CPC should use its funds, currently around $5 million in borrowing power, to subsidize homeowners.
“If it could be offset by funds from the CPC, that would help keep people here,” Nicolau said.
Anderson flatly disagreed.
“I won’t support the use of CPC funds to subsidize short-term rentals [versus long term rentals]. We’re not in a position to do that. We’re still trying to build or renovate units,” Anderson said.
She added that she liked Peake’s proposal to develop a system to identify potential renters in need of below-market rental housing. Creating an application would be the first step towards convincing homeowners to open their houses to temporary renters. However, Anderson said, managing the application process is something the CPC volunteer board cannot do.
“The town has to come forward and say they would do a registry of people in need,” she said.
Hunter O’Hanian, director of the Fine Arts Work Center, attended the selectmen’s meeting with Anderson to ask the selectmen for help. Afterwards, he termed the meeting “disappointing.”
“If we can’t figure out how to harness this problem, it will devastate this community. We’ll become a town of second home owners,” he said.
Another piece of bad news was delivered by Town Manager Keith Bergman, who said he had been in touch recently with officials at Cumberland Farms, who are considering selling a parcel of land adjacent to their convenience store on Shank Painter Road for use as a site for affordable housing. The officials may want to have the land reappraised, since the original appraisal was done about a year ago and land values have risen since then. As a result, Bergman said, the company won’t be able to meet the CPC’s Jan. 6 deadline.
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Dec 15th, 2005