Affordable Housing for Older Adults

Martha’s Vineyard’s year-round community’s demographics and housing needs are far different from the Island’s image of wealth and plenty. The population is getting older as young families leave, and it includes a large number of low-income households. With older adult residents on fixed incomes and younger wage-earners working in lower-paying, service-sector jobs, more than a quarter of all Vineyard households were earning less than $35,000 in 2010. The numbers and percentages of people living in poverty on the Island have also been rising.

The challenges to establishing a secure residence on Martha’s Vineyard have become insurmountable for a growing segment of the population, including a majority of those who grew up here, many skilled and well-paid workers, and older households of moderate income.

Click here to view the comprehensive Senior Housing Needs Assessment put together for Healthy Aging MV by Chi Partners, LLC.  

Healthy Aging Martha's Vineyard aims:

• To work with the Joint Affordable Housing Group to expand affordable workforce and elder housing

• To work with Island Elderly Housing (IEH) to find funding to construct/develop more affordable older adult housing

• To work to change zoning regulations for “grandparent” and multi-family units, and explore co-housing and other intergenerational models

• To work to include “visitability” in zoning and building regulations, and to develop programs to retrofit homes