Governor Maura Healey Talks Housing, Food Insecurity During Nantucket Visit

When Governor Maura Healey asked a group of Nantucket's elected officials and other stakeholders on Tuesday what they needed to solve the island's housing crisis, the answer was nearly unanimous: the housing bank transfer fee on real estate transactions.

Gov. Healey paid a visit to Nantucket on Tuesday to talk about two of her most important issues: affordable housing and food insecurity. She found on the island a supportive audience that wanted to share Nantucket's success stories in both arenas, but also the immense challenges that remain.

In her two-hour visit to the island, Gov. Healey toured the new Wiggles Way workforce apartments on Fairgrounds Road and addressed a group of town officials and stakeholders about the housing crisis on Nantucket and statewide. From there, Healey visited Sustainable Nantucket's farm stand and fields off Hummock Pond Road, where she met with island farmers and others leading the island's efforts to tackle food insecurity. 

Healey congratulated island officials on the recently completed Wiggles Way development, and emphasized her support of the transfer fee legislation for affordable housing that Nantucket has championed for more than a decade, but has fallen short at the state level time and time again.

"Housing is my top priority," Healey said. "Especially for some of our seasonal communities where we've seen huge inflation in prices over the last several years. We have to figure out a way to make this work to free up some revenue to be able to secure the housing for year-round residents who are working in our schools and hospitals, at the fire department and the police department, providing municipal services. It's really important and it's at a crisis point here on Nantucket and also on the Vineyard."

Members of Nantucket's Affordable Housing Trust, including Brian Sullivan and Penny Dey, along with municipal housing director Kristie Ferrantella and Nantucket Police Chief Jody Kasper, told Healey that Nantucket faces a unique housing crisis that is a "half a billion dollar problem." They spoke about the so-called "missing middle," or the lack of support for individuals and families who make too much money to qualify for existing affordable housing programs, but not enough to buy a home on the market. They also mentioned how the state's 40B law does not work to Nantucket's benefit, as 75 percent of such developments often end up as seasonal or investment properties that are out of the reach of year-round residents.

"I know that here, you feel it more acutely than other places," Healey said. "I hear the different stories of people who cannot afford housing. People who are working and working incredibly hard, not just two jobs, but six-figure families that cannot afford housing. And that's a very bad thing for any community. It's a very bad thing for an island community. And I want you to know that we are paying close attention to this and trying to think about ways to bring online more housing, more quickly. I recently offered up surplus land, state land. Let's utilize that for housing. And that's never been done before by the state."

At the Sustainable Nantucket farm stand property, which is owned by the Nantucket Land Bank and leased to a group of island farmers, Healey met with Dylan Wallace, of Eat Fire Farm, and Dan Southey and Misha Currie, of Washashore Farm. They described the collaboration and innovations of their operations, as well as the challenges of running a farm on an island 30 miles out to sea. Healey was also introduced to Ruth Pitts from the Nantucket Food Pantry and representatives from Nourish Nantucket, the group working to coordinate food insecurity efforts on the island.

The Current asked Healey about the town's recent list of demands sent to Vineyard Wind, and whether she supported the town's efforts to hold Vineyard Wind accountable. Here's how she responded: 

All photos below by Jason Graziadei