At our annual Town Meeting on April 3 we will once again (for the third time) be voting on the Home Rule Petition (Article 70) to establish an Affordable Housing Bank. Modeled after the Nantucket Islands Land Bank, the article would place a fee of 1/2 percent on any arms-length real estate transaction over $2,000,000 to be paid by the Seller. The funds would be administered by a local Housing Bank board to be used to support island affordable housing initiatives. Possible uses might be acquisition of land for restricted units at a range of affordability levels, including working in concert with the Land Bank under their Affordable Housing Policy, buy-down in existing developments to affordable levels, rental assistance or a loan program to help rental owners bring their offerings up to code (in exchange for affordability restrictions)
Nantucket’s Town Meeting has twice before approved this article (the last time unanimously). We are expecting a confirmatory vote which will enable the legislation that is currently pending to continue to wend its way through the Massachusetts state legislature without having to be re-filed.