At Housing Assistance Corporation, we have been on the frontlines of providing affordable housing since 1974. Today, our challenges have never been greater. The shrinking supply of year-round housing is getting worse. It is impacting families, businesses, and municipalities. It is a threat to the health of our economy and the very character of Cape Cod.  

The reasons behind this crisis are simple. Since Cape Cod is a desirable location to live and vacation, non-residents and investors are increasingly buying existing year-round properties and converting them into short-term rentals or keeping them for their own occasional use. The stock of year-round housing is rapidly depleting and therefore, prices are out of reach for Cape Cod residents. 

As the regional housing agency on Cape Cod, we decided to take a step back and analyze the internal and external causes of the region’s housing shortage, its impact and possible solutions. We started with two simple questions — what would happen if we did nothing? What more can we do? 

Those questions formed the basis of a white paper, “Housing On Cape Cod: The High Cost of Doing Nothing”. 

For this report, we relied on the analysis of numerous sources. We interviewed business and community leaders about the effects of the housing crunch. The research and conversations shaped our thinking and recommended strategies. For example, in addition to developing affordable housing units, Housing Assistance Corporation is now investing in the development of market-rate units that will help alleviate the housing shortage. More year-round housing will change the supply dynamic in the marketplace and add more options for all income groups. 

Additionally, HAC is launching Rent 365, a pilot program that incentivizes homeowners to convert their seasonal or vacation homes into year-round rentals.

This is a challenging time for our region. Low-income families suffer first and most acutely if we do nothing, but they are not alone. Uniting and finding purposeful strategies that mitigate and eventually solve our housing crisis will be of great benefit to our region. If we keep approaching housing in our region with the same old strategies, we will only continue to feed the worsening and self-perpetuating housing shortage for year-round residents. 

Let’s try some new ideas. 

Mark R. Forest, Chair

Dan Wolf, Cape Air, Vice Chair

Peter Muise, First Citizens' Federal Credit Union, Treasurer

Peter Freeman, Clerk

Catherine Baker, Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen's Alliance

Ashley Moore Baker, IFAW

Liam Cahill, Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank

Cliff Carroll, RMS Mortgage 

Cathy Gibson, Department of Transitional Assistance

Margaret Hayes

Paul Melville, Cape Cod Family Resource Center

Sue Rohrbach

Paul Ruchinskas

Dr. Kumara Sidhartha, Emerald Physicians

Raymond Tamasi, Gosnold Innovation Center

Tara Wallace, Department of Transitional Assistance