High housing costs on Martha’s Vineyard exacts heavy toll on fulltime and seasonal workers

(21 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts – 3 June 2024
1. Wide pan of houses with water in front

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts – 4 June 2024
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Laura Silber, Island housing Planner, Martha’s Vineyard Commission:
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“So we’ve had a shift in our income distribution. This speaks to the fact that we’re losing year-round residents. We’re losing our low and moderate income families. We’re losing our middle class because we have no housing.”
3. Medium of person walking a dog past a house
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Sheryl Taylor, equity and access coordinator, Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School:
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“It has been a challenge. I mean, we came here because my husband had housing with the hospital. So we were in hospital housing when we first got here. And when that was up, we have been pretty much housing insecure ever since, which means we can manage to have nine months, ten months housing, but don’t have housing during the summer. And, for the requirements of my job, I pretty much pay two to three months worth of rent to come back for the two weeks that I have to be here to be an administrator in the school.”
5. Wide pan of houses
6. Wide of people meeting in a classroom at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Sheryl Taylor, equity and access coordinator, Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School:
“I have spent a significant amount of time couch surfing. With my suitcase in my car, and moving one or two nights here and there with friends on the island.”
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Jason Merrill, owner of Martha’s Vineyard Bike Rentals:
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“We definitely get people looking for, say, jobs that come with housing. Or even just housing. We’ve had people come by and ask if they ‘You know of any apartments, or any rooms? Or anything like that?’”
9. Wide of people leaving on bikes from Martha’s Vineyard Bike Rentals
10. Medium of people walking down the sidewalk in Edgartown
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Jason Merrill, owner of Martha’s Vineyard Bike Rentals:
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“It’s definitely a point of contention here in the towns, and town hall meetings and stuff, that Airbnb is taking over a lot of the rental aspect of people’s houses. And, again, making it hard for seasonal workers to come in and stay."
12. Wide of house with person mowing the lawn
13. Ed Augustus, Massachusetts State Secretary of Housing
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“Yeah, we’ve heard examples of folks who are coming in on the ferry every single day, sometimes from Falmouth, sometimes from further locations on the Cape, sometimes from off Cape … Gov. Healy filed an Affordable Homes Act back in October. The legislature’s taking it up right now. There are a number of different tools in there that we think are helpful. Some are taking existing programs that have supported the creating of affordable housing on both islands, and just really supercharging the funding for those.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts – 3 June 2024
14. Medium from inside ferry looking at water
15. Wide of ferry

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts – 4 June 2024
16. Medium of fisherman chopping up bait on boat
17. Tight of fisherman chopping up bait on boat
18. Wide of lighthouse
STORYLINE:
High housing costs on Martha’s Vineyard are forcing many regular workers to leave and are threatening public safety.

Her story reflects the plight of many on the Massachusetts resort island.

AP Video shot by Nick Perry.

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