EASTHAM — It will be at least another year before two properties the town voted to buy in May 2022 and convert into affordable housing will be ready for tenants, said Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe. The drawn-out and costly process of renovation to create what will likely be six units in this case illustrates how small-scale affordable housing efforts can soak up scarce time and resources— at least according to some housing advocates.
The Beach Plum Motor Lodge on Route 6, across the highway from town hall, was purchased from Gloria Moll for $760,000. It will likely become four rental units, according to Aimee Eckman of the Eastham Affordable Housing Trust. The second parcel, at 580 Massasoit Road, was purchased for $450,000 from Donald and Virginia Delaney; it houses the thrift store run by Friends of the Eastham Council on Aging and will have two rental units on its second and third floors.
The need for more affordable housing in Eastham — as in all the towns of the Outer Cape — is acute. According to the town’s 2021 housing production plan, 355 households in town were earning less than $25,000, meaning that the number of extremely rent-burdened households was nearly double the 119 affordable housing units available at that time. The report also said that the vacancy rate for year-round rentals in 2019 was zero.
“Eastham doesn’t have a lot of unused space or open land,” said Carolyn McPherson, chair of the affordable housing trust. The town’s largest affordable development, the Village at Nauset Green with 65 units that were finished in 2020, sits on 11.2 acres. Smaller projects help the town make progress on affordable housing production, McPherson said.
“I think that the more housing we can create, the better,” said Eckman of the two current projects. “But it makes a very small dent. It’s not going to amount to many units at all.”
The slow rate of housing development is not sufficient to meet the demand, say local advocates. “It takes the same amount of energy and headaches to build 10 affordable units as it does to build 100 affordable units,” said Jay Coburn, director of the Community Development Partnership. “We don’t have the time to build 10 units at a time.”
The North Eastham Master Plan currently envisions a possible 67 affordable housing units, but that plan is not expected to be ready until at least 2026. The high stakes of that project demand a slow but steady pace, said Beebe. “We only have one chance to get it right,” she said.
Beyond “capital A” affordable housing, which refers to income-restricted units, the town also seeks to develop “workforce housing” for those whose income makes them ineligible for affordable housing but who are still struggling to pay rent in an increasingly expensive housing market.
The Beach Plum Motor Lodge will become workforce housing, which is designated for households earning between 80 and 120 percent of area median income (AMI). In Barnstable County, a single person earning between $60,000 and $114,149 would be eligible to rent there, according to the Mass. Housing Partnership.
Built in 1900, the Beach Plum currently has a 1,240-square-foot main house and five small cottages. The town has installed a new Advantex septic system at the property. It cost $73,621, $60,000 of which was negotiated as a discount in the property’s purchase price.
The new septic system is classified as “innovative/alternative,” meaning that it prevents nutrients like nitrogen from entering groundwater and flowing to estuaries and freshwater ponds in the area. The town’s dept. of public works also removed a swimming pool from the property.
The property is limited to five bedrooms in all because of the capacity of its septic system. The number of housing units created there, however, could vary. “We could do one five-bedroom unit, or five one-bedroom units,” said Beebe, “or three one-bedroom and one two-bedroom” — in other words, any combination of five bedrooms.
The town’s purchase of the Beach Plum Motor Lodge closed in September 2022. In late December 2022, the town approved the property’s new septic system; in the spring of this year, the town sought proposals for the system’s installation. After the system was installed in the summer, the town made a list of possible code violations to be addressed by staff or contractors.
There is a tenant who has been living in the main house for about a year, Beebe said. Part of the funding for the project came from the $100,000 housing allocation in the Family Support Package, a $490,500 budget item approved at the 2020 annual town meeting to help keep workers and families in Eastham as the cost of living rises.
The town will soon release an RFP for architectural development at the Beach Plum, with a window of eight weeks to find the right developer. That project has a budget of $75,000, but the developer is selected according to “the best proposal, not the lowest cost,” Beebe said. After an architect is selected, it is expected to take four to six months for the plan to be created.
“We want a creative design,” Beebe said. “The designer should feel free to not just recreate one building but configure the units however they think might look best on the site and give us the most units of housing.”
The Old General Store
The Council on Aging Thrift Store is undergoing a similarly slow development process. The building, built between 1871 and 1874, was purchased in part to help preserve the thrift store, a mainstay of the community. The town used Community Preservation Act funds for the purchase. The scope and phasing of the renovation are still being negotiated, with an expected deadline of March 1, 2024.
Before the second- and third-floor apartments in the building are ready to be inhabited, they must undergo structural renovations, said Beebe. These include installing new windows, separate heating systems for each unit, and sprinklers.
Last summer, the town applied for a state grant for 580 Massasoit Road and signed a contract for an architectural review of the property by Keenan & Kenney Architects in Falmouth, which is nearly complete. The plan is to convert the upstairs into two small apartments, one on the second floor and another on the third.
Before units at these two properties can become affordable housing, the town will also send out a call for consultants to draft its Fair Housing Law lottery, which will determine how qualified applicants are selected.
