News
Unpaid Rent May Cause Some Landlords to Sell Rentals
Even before the pandemic hit our economy, Cape Cod was suffering from an extreme lack of rental properties for our workforce. In Barnstable, we had a vacancy rate of less than 1%, when real estate experts consider a 7% vacancy rate [...]
Tenants Must Apply for Assistance to Qualify for Federal Eviction Moratorium
The Massachusetts’ eviction moratorium, which is credited with delaying “tens of thousands” of evictions in the state expired October 17. Many landlords will start eviction processes for tenants who are behind on rent. There’s a lot of confusion about the [...]
Virtual Summit Highlights Impacts of Pandemic on the Cape
Even before the pandemic hit, the housing crisis on Cape Cod was at a tipping point. One indication could be seen in this statistic: pre-COVID, 45 percent of renters in our region were either extremely cost burdened or burdened. “What that [...]
Role at Housing Assistance a Labor of Love for Keith Trott
A little over seven years ago, Keith Trott saw an ad for a part-time position at Housing Assistance overseeing maintenance at our Carriage House and Village at Cataumet family shelters. It came at the perfect time for Trott who had been [...]
Municipal Officials Discuss Ways to Improve Equity in Housing
Addressing systemic racism and economic exclusion in housing zoning and policy have been a focus of our agency since our inception, as it has been for all who support affordable housing and housing equity. Our communities did not become segregated by [...]
Donor Spotlight: Sullivan & Sullivan
In the spring of 2015, Housing Assistance Board Member Ron Winner convinced Marianne Sullivan to organize a drive for our Welcome Home Gift Basket Program. “Ron has been a dear friend of our family for a long time,” explained Marianne, owner [...]
Ready Renters Program Accepting Applications for Apartments in Barnstable Dennis, Falmouth, Orleans, and Yarmouth
The Ready Renters Program is currently accepting applications on a rolling basis for 5 affordable apartments in Dennis, Falmouth, and Yarmouth through Friday November 20. The available units include: 2-Bedroom Affordable Apartment at 72 Swan River Road in West Dennis [...]
Davis Family Becomes Homeowners Through Yarmouth Buydown Program
The Davis family, in Yarmouth Even before Danielle and Jarrek Davis learned they had been selected as one of three lottery winners for the Yarmouth Buydown Program, they had already started looking at homes to purchase. “We were really [...]
First Citizens’ Teams Up to Help FSS Clients Strengthen Credit
Matt Bolinder still remembers the day he first saw his credit score. “At the time, my girlfriend, who is now my wife, was working with me and we went on Credit Karma. I got incredibly emotional. It was like a gut [...]
Housing Assistance Opens Satellite Office in Orleans
We are delighted to announce that the Lower Cape Outreach Council is joining forces with Housing Assistance at its offices at 19 Brewster Cross Road in Orleans. Now residents of the Lower and Outer Cape who want in-person assistance can access [...]
Energy Department Adapts to Continue Delivering Services
While most of Housing Assistance’s services were able to continue in the midst of the pandemic, our Energy Department was forced to take a brief pause. The department, which conducts energy audits of people’s homes, didn’t have protocols in place [...]
Workforce Housing Relief Fund
Almost immediately after the pandemic hit, Housing Assistance established the Workforce Housing Relief Fund to provide urgent assistance with past due rent or mortgage payments or other housing-related expenses for current, year-round Cape Cod and Island residents who are losing [...]
State of Cape Cod Virtual Summit Will Focus on Housing, Unemployment, Real Estate and Business
Regional leaders in housing, employment, real estate, and business will come together to discuss the State of Cape Cod and the impacts the pandemic has had on all sectors of the local economy. Dubbed “Cape Cod in the Time of [...]
50-Mile Challenge Launched to Support Housing Assistance
They may have playfully dubbed themselves Team Molasses, but Housing Assistance Projects Assistant Heather Ferris and her roommate Jackie Avery have committed themselves to running or walking a minimum of 50 miles, from July 1 through September 1. The pair [...]
Lofts at 57 Fills Need for Rental Housing
Housing Assistance's Keith Trott (from left), Alisa Magnotta, and David Quinn with Barnstable Housing Coordinator Arden Cadrin. For roughly two decades, a .7-acre lot on Ridgewood Avenue sat vacant in Hyannis. A concrete foundation littered with trash and [...]
Virtual Walk for Hope Raises Over $40,000
This year’s Walk for Hope may have been held virtually, but as our CEO Alisa Magnotta said during the kick off to the event on our Facebook page, “we’re in this together, working towards safe and affordable housing for all [...]
Carol McManus Retires After 19 Years of Service
This summer Housing Assistance wishes a happy retirement to Carol McManus and thanks her deeply for her 19 years of dedicated service. Carol joined Housing Assistance in 2001, working evenings and overnights at our Angel House shelter for mothers in recovery [...]
HBRACC Raises Nearly $100,000 for Workforce Housing Relief Fund
Housing Assistance CEO Alisa Magnotta (from left) with HBRACC Executive Director Chris Flanagan and Housing Assistance Chief Development Officer Anne Van Vleck. Not long after Housing Assistance launched the Workforce Housing Relief Fund in April, the Home Builders [...]
Editorial: Building Diversity and Resiliency
By Alisa Magnotta Now more than ever, the direct link between housing and healthcare and our economy has been demonstrated. When the best strategy for dealing with COVID-19 is to stay home, we see how a safe place to call [...]
Donor Spotlight: Mid-Cape Home Centers
Event Coordinator Deanna Bussiere (from left) with Mid-Cape Home Centers Marketing Director Crystal Pieschel and President Jack Stevenson. This year, Mid-Cape Home Centers is celebrating its 125th anniversary, serving professional builders and homeowners on Cape Cod. As part of [...]