Select Board Member Tom Dixon Named Director Of Operations For Nantucket Land Trust

The Nantucket Land Trust, the island’s newest housing nonprofit, has named Select Board member Tom Dixon its director of operations.

“Tom [Dixon] is a highly capable individual with a keen intellect, a strong work ethic, and a passion for our mission. Tom [Dixon] joins the Land Trust with key operational experience and a deep understanding of the housing issue on Nantucket. He’s therefore a contributor from day one,” Nantucket Land Trust (NLT) executive director Tucker Holland said.

Dixon previously served as a legislative liaison for Nantucket’s representative to the State House, assistant executive director of Nantucket Food, Fuel, and Rental Assistance, and interim executive director of the Nantucket Racquet Sports Association.

“For year-rounders, reasonably priced housing is now completely out of reach for most. Just because it’s complicated and hard to solve doesn’t mean it can’t be solved. We’ve all seen too many valued community members leave the island because they lost their housing or because it became profoundly unaffordable. And that is why I am excited to be joining an organization that is focused on addressing a key missing piece in the puzzle,” Dixon said. “I believe the land trust model, proven to work in other places such as on Martha’s Vineyard, is the next step in creating a larger base of attainable year-round housing on Nantucket.”

Led by Holland, Nantucket’s former municipal housing director and one of the island’s most outspoken advocates for affordable and attainable housing, the NLT is pioneering a new approach to the island's housing crisis. The NLT follows the community land trust model, under which the trust owns the land while the homeowner owns the building. Other communities, including Martha’s Vineyard, have similar land trusts, but the NLT is a first for Nantucket.

Speaking to the Current earlier this year, Holland said that the NLT would focus on providing home-ownership opportunities to year-round residents making too much to qualify for most affordable housing who still can’t afford a home on-island, a group often referred to as the missing middle.

The NLT’s board members include Planning Board member John Kitchener, affordable housing developer Billy Cassidy, former president of the Nantucket Association of Real Estate Brokers Penny Dey, local attorney Arthur Reade, and Phillipe Jordi, who serves as the chief executive officer of the similar Island Housing Trust on Martha’s Vineyard.

“Tom is the right person at the right time to materially contribute to expanding our operations and to add to our critical thinking,” Dey said.