Over the past seven years, five major studies have documented the affordable housing crisis on the entire Cape.  While the Outer Cape is  the hardest hit, the rest of the Cape has not been spared.  

​

Across the Cape, employment is declining, working class families are leaving, retail is faltering and GDP growth is minimal.  Each study comes to a singular conclusion:  affordable housing has disappeared across the Cape.  Where once the Cape had a thriving working class, today an estimated 829 working families leave the Cape every year.   Where once, the Cape had ample rental opportunities, today the rental vacancy rate is .5%, making rentals almost impossible to find (and most of the available rentals are geared toward high income individuals.)   Where once the Cape was an affordable place to buy a home, today nearly 30 percent of the Cape workforce commutes from across the bridges. 

 

According to the Cape Cod Commission, the percentage of affordable housing on the entire Cape is 3.9%, far below the minimum 10% set by Massachusetts law.

​

The Cape is still building homes but almost none of them are affordable.  The average price of a new home on the Cape is now $1.7 million.  4,700 new homes were built from 2010 to 2019 while the number of year-round houses fell by 3,700.

​

By 2020, the Cape had a shortage of 27,000 affordable housing units.  Over the last 15 years, just 560 affordable housing units were built across the entire Cape.  As a result, homeowners and renters on the Cape are increasingly cost burdened:  over half of all renters and 37% of homeowners spend more than 30% of their income on housing.   In all, 32,000 households on the Cape spend more than 30% of their income on housing.  

​

On the rental side, the numbers are shocking.  The average rent for an 1,800 square ft unit is now $4,158, far out of reach for most working class families.  Rentals are now priced for wealthy retirees and seasonal visitors, not for working families.  Nearly 60 percent of renters on the Cape are worried that they may lose their housing over the next year.  And nearly 50% of renters have had to move during the last three years and a quarter have moved two or more times.  Finding affordable housing was the number one reason.

​

Businesses across the Cape site the cost of housing for their workers as their number one challenge.  They adjust to the crisis by curtailing hours, shutting down during multiple days or leaving the Cape.  The retail sector declined by $80 million in constant dollars from 2010 to 2020.  As a result, jobs on the Cape fell by 4.5% from 2016-21 with hospitality, education, health services, retail and government all showing losses.  Projections show that health services, hospitality, leisure and retail trade will continue to decline unless the affordable housing crisis is addressed. 

 

Businesses want to expand but instead find themselves contracting.  Over one quarter of Cape business say they cannot hire enough workers to meet demand.  Food service businesses report that even $30/hour wages are not enough because housing is simply impossible to secure.  

​

Everyday more than 24,000 workers cross the bridges to work on the Cape.  Half of them commute more than 50 miles.  

​

The crisis is here.  The trends for the entire Cape - for employment, for housing, for business growth - are all negative.  Unless action is taken, the quality of life will continue to decline, healthcare and vital services will decline, businesses will increasing leave. 

 

Please join with us to help ensure that the Truro and the Outer Cape meet the challenge with in a deliberate, collaborative and fact-based way. 

​​​