One town on Cape Cod is launching a new initiative this week to try and tackle the affordable housing crisis.
Provincetown will be the first town in Massachusetts to initiate the “Lease to Locals” pilot program, which provides up to $20,000 to property owners who convert their short-term rentals into year-round rentals for local workers.
“A lot of properties are short-term rented, so rented either seasonally or weekly/weekend rentals, which makes it very difficult for folks to find quality year-round housing in Provincetown,” explained Alex Morse, Provincetown's town manager.
The average single-family home in the vacation destination costs about $1.2 million, with a condo coming in about $900,000, according to Morse.
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“We’re re-investing money that the town makes via short term rentals, into a program to incentivize the availability for year-round rentals for people who live here,” he said.
The program, which starts April 1, has already garnered interest from people who own homes but have a primary residence elsewhere.
“To me it was a no-brainer to be able to financially do that,” said Kevin Cronin, a Provincetown homeowner who lives in Atlanta. “But more importantly, to provide the community a house and share what will eventually be our permanent retirement home; but be able to offer that for someone to be able to live in and take care of over the next few years.”
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Those who work in town year-round have also begun signing up for the program.
“I’ve been really fortunate to know people and get connected by word of mouth, but it is definitely challenging,” said Selena Schreyer, a Provincetown renter.
Schreyer and her coworker Eryn Reed both work at The Salty Market and have other local jobs.
“I have moved probably 6 times since I’ve come here,” said Reed, who moved to Provincetown in 2021. “I’ve had to live in really tiny places with a lot of other people. This is an actual home, and it’s going to be a home with my very close friends, so I’m thrilled.”
“It just means the world to have an actual home now, or at least for the next 4 or 5 years. That’s unheard of,” Reed said.
The program will also be used as a bridge to housing projects already in the pipeline in P-town. One hundred units of rental housing are set to become available in the coming years.
