Housing Crisis
The housing shortage in Provincetown has been growing every year for many years because of rising property values, the exponential increase in popularity of short term rental apps, and an absolute limit of available land to build upon. This shortage has been felt by those who have lived here as renters and have had to move from their homes, seasonal workers who can no longer find a place to rent, and subsequently, businesses that are experiencing an extreme shortage of available help.
The solutions are necessarily a triage:
I) We must identify options for this season to temporarily house workers.
I have been in touch with Rep. Sarah Peake and am looking at a version of “man camps” as they are called in the oil fields of North Dakota – portable housing trailers that are designed to accommodate workers – and actively investigating possible locations. The Truro air force base seemed like a natural place to put them, but I spoke with CCNS Superintendent Brian Carlstrom and he explained that the National Parks do not have the authorization to allow this use, and it would literally take an act of Congress to change it. Town-owned properties are being explored, such as the VFW site and others, and the next step is to await a legal review by town counsel.
My initiative, the Economic Stabilization and Sustainability Committee, includes a Housing working group where they are exploring all opportunities including a floating barge that provides workforce housing.
There are a number of incentives that may be employed to encourage property owners to rent spaces this summer; this includes reviewing those properties that have encountered issues and need to be brought up to code - we can opt to provide assistance to those owners to expedite needed improvements and approvals.
II. We must review the available properties and reexamine and promote all of the tools in the housing toolbox to find ways to encourage the renting of properties to both year-round and seasonal workers. These include Accessory Dwelling Units, Homeowners Exemption opportunities, and the above-mentioned assistance for bringing non-conforming spaces up to code.
III. Everyone is pulling out the maps and looking for those town-owned properties - both existing buildings and land parcels - that may be re-purposed for housing. All spaces that can be reasonably repurposed should be done so at expedited speed.
We must think outside the usual boxes – many municipalities with housing shortages and limited land are looking at how to reclaim paved spaces. I am very excited about the prospect of reviewing the area of Rt. 6 from Shank Painter Road to Herring Cove (and then the area of Conwell to Shank Painter that will be up next for review) to see if we might be able to create a “planned neighborhood” complete with mixed-use housing, bike path to the beach, recreation space, and raised walkways to provide enjoyment of and respect for the more sensitive land areas. My father was an architect and developer in Sarasota, Florida and he designed and built many such planned housing areas, and they were done with respect for the natural environment so that they not only blended well with the surroundings but did so with the most natural of building materials available. Revitalizing Rt. 6 could be our next big thing!
IV. In order to maximize the potential to solve this housing crisis, we need to also look at ways to stop the complete attrition of available rental units in our housing stock. This may include a moratorium on non-owner-occupied AirBnB properties (where the owner does not live in the property at all during the course of a year).
V. A proposal being explored in the Economic Stabilization and Sustainability Committee is the creation of a Provincetown Development Corporation that would be a public-private partnership with the intent to facilitate new housing developments.