Opinion: HAC is stepping up for an endangered species on Cape Cod: Locals
As the admin of my local community group on Facebook, The Mashpee Message, very few days go by that I don’t see a post with someone desperate for housing. The stories are similar: a household with long-standing ties to the community, a great rental history, full-time jobs, and the ability to pay, yet struggling to just find a rental anywhere on Cape.
Lately the most common theme: their landlord has sold the home or condo and there’s nowhere left to rent. Meanwhile, Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) sentiment is on the rise. It is disheartening to see conservation groups such as Barnstable Land Trust that could be working collaboratively with housing groups trying to take land off the table for housing.
Nowhere to go: Cape Cod rental housing shortage leaves middle-income families struggling to find a home
I’m grateful to Housing Assistance Corporation for speaking up on behalf of the many locals who are either struggling to remain on Cape or those who have housing and understand the need for more.
On Cape Cod, much of the new housing development is second homes, McMansions and high-priced units. There is also great effort to create more affordable and deed- or income-restricted housing. We cannot continue to ignore those in the middle. There needs to be market-rate homes and apartments that do not shut out the middle class. The middle is all too often unqualified for “affordable units” because they earn “too much” money or are priced out of unattainable units for not having “enough” money.
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When there is little supply and much demand, ECON101 supports the idea that the cost of what small inventory is available will just continue to rise.
Lastly, I would like to ask people who currently own a home or have stable housing to do one simple exercise. Look at what is available for rent or for sale around you. Look at the lack of inventory, look at the skyrocketing prices, and look at the sparse rentals with pages of applicants. If tomorrow you had to start your life over would you be able to stay on Cape Cod as things are now?
Elana Doyle, Mashpee
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod: Middle-income residents driven away by lack of housing
