I grew up in Provincetown and returned home last year after graduating from college. Though I had no plans to get involved in town politics or government and wondered about my qualifications to do so, I was encouraged to volunteer and was appointed to the conservation commission and the recycling and renewable energy committee.
The responses have been overwhelmingly positive. Everyone wants to know my opinions on the state of the town. I am constantly asked what it was like to grow up here — and how I can afford to live here now.
The truth is that being a 23-year-old local who returns to town is like being a unicorn.
I have been intimately aware of Provincetown’s housing crisis from an early age — before I could really understand the economics of the market and the forces making it impossible for most families to live here. Throughout my time at the Veterans Memorial Elementary School, I had only six to eight classmates. When I was in fourth grade, the school committee announced that the high school would close, and in 2013 the last class of eight seniors graduated. During my sophomore year at Nauset High, my mother, Beau Fillion, and I managed to move into affordable housing.
Now I can see more clearly the conditions that are shaping the future of my hometown. The proliferation of lucrative short-term rentals is killing Provincetown’s vibrancy and soul. Its transformation into a vacation paradise for the ultrarich is robbing it of its depth and charm. I am saddened by the lack of diversity I see in the people who are now able to afford to live here. I am frustrated that people have been talking about fixing the problem for years, yet it has only gotten worse.
It is impossible to discuss the changes that we have witnessed without discussing short-term rentals. Rebuilding a year-round community here will require a 360-degree approach that involves much more than just the building of new housing.
These observations aren’t new or profound. I am only one of many who have described the issue. I am new, however, to learning about government actions that might start to reverse the damage. And I am angry because I was denied an opportunity to understand them more fully.
I went to town meeting on April 3 eager to hear more about warrant Articles 18, 19, and 20, which proposed new regulations on short-term rentals. Until I read about them in the March 16 issue of the Independent, I hadn’t realized they existed. What a terrible feeling, then, to have the conversation about them cut short.
The only discussion that was allowed following the motion to indefinitely postpone all three articles was about whether to even begin the conversation — and the vote on that motion killed all three articles. There would be no feedback on actual ideas for solutions and no chance to revise them.
My experience, and the experience of many others, wasn’t allowed to be heard. I walked out of the meeting feeling like my stomach was full of lead.
It has been devastating to watch my town become increasingly inaccessible for anyone who is not wealthy, grandfathered into family land, or extraordinarily lucky. I wouldn’t be here now if my mom hadn’t come to Provincetown as a broke young woman about my age.
Provincetown is unlike any other place. I enthusiastically share it with anyone who wants to be here. It is my first home, and it’s the only one I have. Please remember that there is more to lose here than what we can measure in dollars and cents.
Emma Fillion graduated from Nauset Regional High School in 2018 and from Centre College in Danville, Ky. in 2022. She lives in Provincetown and is a member of the recycling and renewable energy committee and an alternate member of the conservation commission.
