'We've got to stem the bleeding': Addressing the Outer Cape’s housing crisis
Valerie Wencis Boston University Statehouse Program
What happens when an idyllic seaside town prices out those who keep it running?
“A coffee shop is nice to have. But a fireman or a policeman … we are a community where the average age is well advanced compared to the state as a whole,” said Wellfleet resident Gary Sorkin. “So just someone to take care of you, so whether it’s a home health aide … in all the ways that older folks get taken care of. Those resources are becoming more and more scarce.”
Sorkin leads the Wellfleet Local Housing Partnership, which promotes affordable housing in the town by fundraising, building awareness and coordinating and collaborating with existing departments and groups within the town focused on the same goals.
Over the past decade, Wellfleet has been the fastest-growing town on Cape Cod, with a year-round population increase of approximately 30 percent, according to a Cape Cod Commission report using U.S. Census numbers.
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Sorkin said he thinks this growth has been further fueled in the pandemic by two groups: those who decided to retire, potentially early, and move into their second or third homes on the Cape, and those who decided to take advantage of working remotely from the beach.
Registered nurse Erin Smith outside her 800-square-foot North Eastham home with her children, Finn, 11, left, Justus, 9, Mercy, 6 and Reliance, 13. Smith said she waits to stay on Cape but her landlord is selling and she is having trouble finding a new rental.
“But as a practical matter, we have almost no new homes. So those people are taking up existing homes, which would otherwise be available for people either to rent on an annual basis, or potentially to buy,” he said.
As a result, the median home price on Cape Cod increased by nearly 20% between 2020 and 2021, according to the Cape Cod & Islands Association of Realtors (CCIAR) annual report. According to the online real-estate marketplace, Zillow, the average Wellfleet house last month was listed at $817,890 — a figure that many of the working-class people who keep the town operational simply cannot afford.
'There's absolutely nowhere to go'
Recent Cape Cod Commission data shows those working in retail, food and accommodation, entertainment and construction earn between $30,000 and $50,000 annually.
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“That’s why homeownership is very difficult for working folks, and we put a real emphasis on programs that could help to mitigate that goal,” Sorkin said.
Affordable housing options have been further reduced as many landlords — spurred by the boom in local tourism during the pandemic — converted their property into summer rentals, so what was previously year-round housing turned into expensive weekly summer rentals.
Consequently, Wellfleet and other towns on the Outer Cape have struggled to hire and retain essential service workers.
“There is nothing there. There is nothing there for people,” said Erin Smith, a registered nurse who lives in North Eastham. “You could look, but you’d be wasting your time; there's absolutely nowhere to go. I mean, that's how bad it's gotten.”
Smith spent more than two years aggressively looking for a place to live before finding the 800-square-foot cottage she shares with her four children. The 40-year-old Cape Cod native will need to look for housing yet again since her landlord is now planning to sell the property.
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“I’m always trying to think positive, and I really want to stay on the Cape with the kids, they want to stay here,” she said, “but when you look at the prices of things, it's a little bit discouraging, to say the least.”
Ways to prevent a playground for the wealthy
Sorkin says the Wellfleet Local Housing Partnership has many efforts underway to address the issue of affordable housing. One such tool is collaborating with the Housing Authority’s Buy-Down program, which awards grants up to $175,000 for those eligible to use on a down payment for a home.
Sorkin lauds the generosity of sellers who have accepted the bids by those using the Buy-Down program versus those who might pay more than the home’s asking price.
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Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, has made it clear that funding for housing on the Cape is imperative to the community’s survival. At the end of 2021, he and fellow legislators Sen. Susan Moran, D-Falmouth, and Rep. Sarah Peake, D-Provincetown, secured a combined $4.8 million of the state’s $5 billion in American Rescue Plan Act , or ARPA, funding to increase affordable housing on the Cape.