A New Approach to a Timeless Issue
Remy Tumin

A new neighborhood is quietly taking root in West Tisbury. There’s a house with an older couple living in it, another one with a mom and two elementary school-aged kids, and a third house owned by a couple who has a newborn baby. On any given weekday, the playground at the West Tisbury School seems just a stone’s throw away.

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MVC Approves Smart-Growth Apartments for Downtown Vineyard Haven
Alex Elvin

The commission determined that The Island Housing Trust affordable apartment project near the busy Five Corners intersection would not contribute to traffic problems or have other adverse affects on the community.

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MVC Will Review Housing Trust's Affordable Apartment Plan
Ivy Ashe

A plan to convert an old house off Water street in Vineyard Haven into affordable apartments will require review by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission as a development of regional impact. The location near the Five Corners intersection was a primary concern.

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As Economy Improves, Year-Round Rentals Grow More Scarce
Olivia Hull

Using social media, a group of people are working to shed light on the Vineyard shuffle, the annual problem they say is afflicting the community even more severely this year.

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Legal Fight Ends on Bright Note With Four Affordable Housing Lots in Chilmark
Sara Brown

Twelve years in the making, the complicated deal with the town, the land bank and the Howard B. Hillman family will create affordable housing, add conservation land and save a historic home in Chilmark.

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MVC Approves Workforce Housing Plan for Edgartown
Sara Brown

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission voted 8-2 Thursday night to approve eight new second-story rental apartments at Post Office Square in Edgartown. Commissioners who backed the plan said the acute need for workforce housing outweighed other problems.

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Chilmark, Land Bank Prevail in Hillman Case
Sara Brown

A complicated three-way land swap designed to create affordable housing, add conservation land and save a historic home is valid and enforceable, a superior court judge found.

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Vineyard Housing Advocates Honored

Two longtime Island affordable housing advocates will be honored at the State House in Boston Tuesday for their contributions under the Community Preservation Act.

Philippe Jordi and Derrill Bazzy are recipients of this year’s Kuehn Community Preservation Award, given out by the Community Preservation Act Coalition.

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Judge to Decide Whether Chilmark Affordable Housing Deal Still Valid
Sara Brown

In 2007 the town of Chilmark, the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank and the Howard Hillman family announced a three-way land swap that was designed to save a historic house, open up a new conservation corridor and create more affordable housing up-Island.

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Gimme Shelter

Here are two words that are perfectly innocuous when standing alone, but always seem to raise hackles when put together: affordable and housing.

The term seems to evoke images of tenements and crack houses. And to be fair the history of affordable housing efforts on the Vineyard is not without hiccups. But the paucity of shelter that even middle-income people can buy or rent is indisputable and well documented. What makes the Island so attractive to summer visitors puts the price of real estate out of reach for many hardworking year-round residents.

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