The pandemic may take up fewer of our news pages than it did in 2020 or 2021, but the truth is Outer Cape Cod is still reeling from that global shock.
The “supply chain issues” to which we have all grown accustomed, and which make an appearance in this week’s storm story delaying Paul Fanizzi’s new windows, are a direct consequence of lockdowns in China. The housing crisis is now exacerbated by rising construction costs and by rising demand from a new class of workers — professionals who can now do their jobs remotely from Cape Cod while earning salaries in Boston or New York.
But in response to the pandemic, the federal government has released an enormous amount of money that is gradually finding its way to the end of this peninsula. The numbers are mind-boggling, and the process is mind-numbing, but the effect on the Outer Cape is real. In one week at the end of 2020, for example, the state increased the funding for a small-business Covid relief grant program from $68 million to $668 million — a decision that wound up bringing $4.4 million to 86 small businesses on the Outer Cape.
The CARES Act of March 2020 and the American Rescue Plan Act of March 2021 together account for almost $4 trillion in new one-time federal spending. The Cloverleaf affordable housing project in Truro was funded through an unusual midyear allocation made possible by ARPA. Of the $16.3 million that the state awarded to the 39-unit project this month, $4.1 million was ARPA money. Those apartments will be under construction this summer.
Following the money has also meant watching some locally controlled funding decisions.
The rooms tax, charged on stays in hotels and short-term rentals like Airbnb, has been the big enchilada. The four Outer Cape towns together brought in $9 million last year, which is about three times what they were receiving in 2018, when only hotel stays were taxed. Six million a year in new money means these towns have real options in front of them.
The marijuana tax, however, was effectively cut in half by state legislation this summer, from 6 percent of gross sales to 3 percent. A crisis counselor program in Provincetown, meant to address an acute shortage of mental health practitioners here, is effectively on hold while the town looks for new funding options.
Provincetown also just rewrote its rental registration program and will now collect more than $750,000 per year in new fees from short-term rental owners.
These are big numbers for small towns. Jay Coburn, CEO of the Community Development Partnership, has suggested that each town on the Outer Cape could afford a properly staffed housing department with the money that is now coming in. The housing director of Vail, Colo. recently made a well-received presentation in Provincetown; there are three people working in Vail’s housing department, not just one.
It’s hard to say that the numbers watch has been an exciting beat. But at least there’s been more than one kind of flood to write about.
