Nantucket’s bid to establish a new transfer tax on real estate transactions to fund affordable housing projects got a major boost this week when Mass General Brigham, the state’s largest hospital system and parent company of Nantucket Cottage Hospital, came out publicly in support of the pending legislation.
The so-called housing bank bill has languished at the State House in Boston for more than a decade, with fierce opposition by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. But optimism had already been building over the past six months with more municipalities joining Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard in pushing for the state legislature to give cities and towns the option to enact a transfer fee for affordable housing. The endorsement from MGB, which employs more than 80,000 people across the state, is significant, housing advocates said this week.
“This is big,” Nantucket’s Municipal Housing Director Tucker Holland told the Current.
Calling the lack of affordable housing “a growing public health crisis” in Massachusetts, Mass General Brigham’s Chief Community Health Equity Officer, Elsie Taveras, MD, MPH, submitted testimony on Wednesday in support of the “commonsense solution” outlined in H. 1377 and S. 868. The two bills would allow municipalities to opt into a real estate transfer fee of .5 percent to 2 percent to fund affordable housing initiatives.
“Health and housing are inextricably linked, and research has demonstrated the connection between housing stability and health outcomes, Taveras said. “Not only is affordable housing a concern with respect to the social determinants of health of our patients, but it’s also a significant contributing factor to staffing challenges that our hospitals are facing. The lack of workforce housing is particularly problematic for employees in our Nantucket Cottage and Martha’s Vineyard Hospitals.”
Nantucket Cottage Hospital has recognized the correlation between housing and health routinely in its triennial community health needs assessments. But up until this week, it had not come out formally in support of the town’s effort to secure passage of the housing bank legislation. With MGB’s endorsement, Nantucket Cottage Hospital President and CEO Gary Shaw and his counterpart at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, Denise Schepici, released a joint statement on Wednesday that appeared with the hospital system’s announcement.
“First responders, public safety personnel, health care staff – all are required to keep our communities safe and healthy,” Shaw and Schepici said. “Massachusetts will not be able to maintain its status as a leader in healthcare if people cannot afford decent, quality housing. In remote locations like Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, affordable, year-round housing is essential to recruitment and retention of qualified staff to support and sustain the health of our communities.”
With its announcement this week, Mass General Brigham joins more than 70 organizations and municipalities that have formed the Transfer Fee for Affordable Housing Coalition in support of the legislation pending at the State House.
The town of Nantucket itself has committed significant resources – including more than $40 million in taxpayer funds – toward affordable housing projects that are in various stages of development. Still, Holland and the members of the town’s Affordable Housing Trust have been staunch advocates of the housing bank legislation.
“Massachusetts is undeniably in a housing crisis and it is having a real and lasting impact,” Holland said. “On the islands, the lack of year-round housing means we have emergency personnel who do not reside on the island, teachers sleeping on couches and a workforce that often is living in overcrowded apartments. This is dangerous to public health. The pandemic has brought particular and grave focus to this situation. Add to that challenges in keeping and recruiting health care staff and medical professionals when they are most needed. We need the legislature to simply give us permission to help ourselves.”
