Recruiting Colleagues for Walk for Hope Is ‘An Easy Ask’
Carole Lyons, a member of the outreach team at the First Congregational Church of Falmouth, says it’s surprisingly easy to put together a team for the Walk for Hope. Last year, the church had an 18-person team participate in the fundraiser for Housing Assistance.
“Everybody looks forward to it and asks me when the walk’s going to be,” said Lyons. “We think that every person on the Cape, regardless of their economic income, should be able to have good choices in where they live. The feeling of knowing that you’re helping people who are less privileged or maybe just don’t have as much as you do find stable housing and at the same time being with friends, it makes for a wonderful day.”
Last year’s Walk for Hope:
375 WALKERS, INCLUDING 51 TEAMS
797 DONATIONS
$130,362 RAISED
Registration is now open for individuals and teams who want to fundraise through the 7th Annual Walk for Hope. The three-mile walks will begin at 1p.m. in Falmouth, Hyannis, and Orleans on Sunday, June 1. Funds raised will support Housing Assistance’s mission to strengthen the Cape Cod and Islands region by empowering individuals, fostering community connections, and increasing affordable housing opportunities.
Sharon Mabile, a Realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices/Robert Paul Properties, the top fundraising team last year, is recruiting colleagues to participate again. “It’s such an easy ask,” she said. “It’s really just about reminding them of the importance of basic security.
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Carole
(center, navy blue hat and jacket)
members
the First Congregational Church of Falmouth who took part in last year’s Walk for Hope.
A New Solution for Seasonal Communities
I was recently interviewed for the CommonWealth Beacon, a publication of the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth. They are a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting economic inclusion and civic vitality through the provision of unbiased research and journalism and respectful civic dialogue. I spoke with reporter Jennifer Smith about my own experience “making it” on Cape Cod, which included renting out my family’s home in Orleans each summer and camping out in my motherin-law’s backyard.
That was more than two decades ago, when it was fairly normal practice for people on the Cape to rent their primary homes in the summer to help pay for expenses the rest of the year. Even nine-month rentals – where people used a house as a summer home but rented it out during the off-season – were common and ensured our small towns had a vibrancy and fairly steady population around the calendar year.
After the short-term rental industry and pandemic patterns reshaped seasonal communities, however, Massachusetts has grappled with what it means for a state with a crippling housing crunch when about 110,000 units sit vacant at any given time because of part-time or seasonal use. The pandemic also ushered in more wealthy vacation home buyers with no need to manage a tenant during the off-season.
It’s not that there’s a shortage of housing units on Cape Cod, it’s a problem of how they’re used. Our population dwindles in the off-season, but the Cape is home to people throughout the year, and a lot of housing is not being used in a way that makes sense for year-round communities.
The Affordable Homes Act passed last summer includes several provisions that support seasonal communities through a special designation and coordinated Seasonal Communities Advisory Council. Seasonal communities automatically include all municipalities in the counties of Nantucket and Dukes, including Martha’s Vineyard, plus municipalities with over 35% seasonal housing units in Barnstable County and more than 40% in Berkshire County.
The Seasonal Communities Advisory Council, of which I am a member, includes representatives from the Cape, Islands, and the Berkshires. We are tasked with providing advice and recommendations on policies or programs that could benefit seasonal communities. In our initial meeting, we considered policies now available to seasonal communities, including adopting tiny-home policies, encouraging more accessory dwelling unit construction, prioritizing municipal employees or artists for housing, and increasing the property tax exemption for full-time residents.
For many seasonal residents, single-family homes on large lots are core to life on Cape Cod. Unfortunately, this housing style is out of step with our changing reality, which calls for strategic density. Our region is simultaneously a tourist destination and a retirement community, aging faster than the rest of the state with a limited appetite for new housing even as demand grows and prices spike.
We have to be good stewards of where we live and build with intention. I look at certain parts of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, closed off to all but wealthy part-timers, and worry about the Cape following along.
Scan to read the article from Commonwealth Beacon
If a sea of change doesn’t come, this place we love is going to be nothing more than a museum.
Alisa Magnotta, CEO
Youth and Young Adult Stabilization Program
Provides Hope
Madison Sheppard was just 8 years old when she first faced housing insecurity. That’s when her parents, who struggled to pay medical bills for her younger sister, moved the family into a hotel for a week before space opened in a family shelter. For the next seven years, they moved multiple times, including living with Madison’s grandmother and staying with her aunt and uncle, where Madison’s family of five crammed into one room.
“I was falling asleep in class, and I was malnourished, and that kind opened up the doors for a lot of bullying and judgment from both my peers and some teachers as well,” she said. “That was difficult for me to go through as a kid because I didn’t understand why these kids were making fun of me. I was a very kind child. My mom always told me that I would take the shirt off my back for others. That was my first time understanding that the world can be a cruel place.”
She said she was a poor student as a child, largely due to depression and anxiety. “I wasn’t really able to tap into my full potential until I hit high school. I changed my mindset. I was determined to show people that I was smart. I started getting straight A’s doing honors courses.”
Madison’s parents moved from Maine back to Massachusetts (Madison was born in Falmouth) just after she finished high school. Wanting to stay in Maine, she lived in a tent in a family member’s yard for a time and later shared a house with an ex-boyfriend. Eventually, she moved back into her grandmother’s house in Massachusetts with the rest of her family. Feeling that she needed to be on her own, she lived for three weeks in a car before finding an unheated camper in someone’s backyard she could rent. “At least there was a roof over my head,” she said.
With financial support from Housing Assistance’s Youth and Young Adult Stabilization Program, Madison moved into an apartment in Centerville in November 2024. “It feels nice to be warm at night and not feel like a massive
windstorm coming in is going to knock over the camper I’m in or someone’s going to be knocking on the car doors while I’m parked somewhere random trying to sleep,” she said.
Although her own life hasn’t been easy, Madison, who recently turned 24, is determined to help others. A student in environmental studies at Cape Cod Community College, she works part-time jobs as an animal care technician, a dance instructor at the Cape Cod Children’s Museum, and with Belonging to Each Other, a homelessness prevention organization in Falmouth.
“I went through a lot that no kid should ever go through, but I just want to say to anybody that may be reading this, just be kind to other people,” she said. “Nobody really knows what anyone’s going through and maybe a little act of kindness can make somebody’s day and give them hope to keep going for another day.”
Madison Sheppard struggled with the side effects of housing insecurity for much of her life.
A Free Way Help Housing Assistance
The next time you buy groceries, you can add a bonus item to your shopping list: a free gift to Housing Assistance.
Since 1993, the Dennis-Yarmouth Ecumenical Council for the Prevention of Homelessness’s (DYECH) mission has been to raise money for Housing Assistance’s homelessness prevention programs.
To raise money, DYECH sells gift certificates, called Cape Cod Caring Cards, to participating stores. The stores sell the gift certificates in bulk to DYECH at a five percent discount, and DYECH then sells the certificates at face value to community members. The five percent margin goes directly to Housing Assistance. This generates several thousand dollars per month to help families pay rent, mortgage arrearages, or housing expenses, preventing them from becoming homeless. Since DYECH started, it has donated $1,688,000 to prevent homelessness for local families.
Due to DYECH’s success in fundraising for family homelessness prevention, the Barnstable Interfaith Council (BIC) was established in 2000 with the mission of helping individuals remain in their homes.
Caring Cards are available for Stop & Shop, Shaw’s, Peterson’s, Dennis Public Market, Ring Brothers, Dominos, McDonald’s, Subway, Starbucks, CVS, Walgreens, Dairy Queen, CC Creamery, 99, Yarmouth House, DiParma, Scalley’s, Target, Home Depot, Marshalls, Wendy’s, Dunkin Donuts and Speedway.
Participating churches sell Caring Cards after their services. You also can obtain them from Housing Assistance; email mbenaka@haconcapecod.org for more info.
Since its founding, BIC has contributed $485,100 to support those in need. Gift cards to benefit BIC are available for purchase at:
• Our Lady of Victory (Centerville)
• First Lutheran Church (West Barnstable)
• Unitarian Universalist Church of Barnstable (Barnstable Village)
Documentary Examines Housing Insecurity
Housing Assistance and Sustainable Practices will co-sponsor a showing of the documentary “A Rising Tide” on June 7th at 9:30 a.m. at the Chatham Orpheum Theater. Seen primarily through the eyes of women and children of color living through housing insecurity in California’s Alameda County, “A Rising Tide” seeks to identify how and why homelessness occurs.
The film juxtaposes the perspectives of various stakeholders affected by the “affordable-housing industrial complex.” It captures the adversity faced by homeless families in Oakland and explores the plight of service providers and social workers on the frontlines of the housing crisis.
Learn more about the film at ARisingTideMovie.com. Tickets can be purchased at chathamorpheum.org or at the theater’s box office.
Those of us who work in this industry know how our success has created problems for people who grew up here and can’t afford to live here. We need to do everything that we can to show that we support them. It’s an easy, short commitment of time that has a huge impact on so many.”
The Falmouth walk will begin at Peg Noonan Park on Main Street and Elm Arch Way. The Orleans walk will start and conclude at Mid-Cape Home Centers at 15 Main Street. The Hyannis event will begin and end at the Village Green off Main Street.
Along with fundraisers, Housing Assistance is seeking sponsors for this year’s walk. Businesses interested in becoming a Walk for Hope sponsor should contact Deanna Bussiere at dbussiere@haconcapecod.org.
For more information about the Walk for Hope, visit HACWalkforHope.org or email events@haconcapecod.org.
Town Meeting 101
A recent Housing to Protect Cape Cod online session covered the basics of town meetings. Stefanie Coxe, Executive Officer at Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Cape Cod, facilitated discussion, with expert advice from Ned Chatelain, member of the Brewster Select Board and former member of the Planning Board.
You can watch the video or download a tip sheet at housingtoprotectcapecod.org/advocacy-trainings.
hacwalkforhope.org
Make Playtime a Reality
We’re working to build a new community playground at LeClair Village in Mashpee – a space where children and families can play, connect and thrive.
To make this dream a reality, we need to raise $300,000, and thanks to the generosity of the William and Linda Zammer Foundation, we’re already one-third of the way there.
This inclusive playground will be open to all Mashpee residents, and we need your help to make it happen. Every donation counts. Donate at haconcapecod.org/get-involved/donate/ (write “LeClair Playground” in the comments).
Energy Improvements Make ‘Big Difference’ for Retired Couple
Randy and Elsa Gonzales were young newlyweds when they bought their home in Harwich 45 years ago. It was a fixerupper and they did their best to keep up with repairs, she says, but in recent years, the house needed more work than they could manage.
It was a blessing when her fuel assistance provider suggested Housing Assistance’s Energy Department arrange for a home energy assessment.
The couple qualified for exterior re-siding, new insulation, roof repairs, new windows and more, at no cost to them. Work started in December and was completed in January.
“They came in, they did the work, they cleaned up. It was like, wow!” said Elsa. “I’m still sitting back going, I can’t believe this. I figured they could give me a hand fixing my windows. Well, they totally surprised me – beyond belief. I got new windows, new shingles, a new roof and a new heating system, which I never dreamed of. I can’t thank them enough. I really can’t.”
Elsa Gonzales says it was “a blessing” when she qualified for free energy improvements at her Harwich home
Randy is a retired landscaper, and Elsa was a laundry worker for many years. This winter was a lot more comfortable for the couple and their dog, Tommy. “I don’t have the drafts coming through the house anymore,” Elsa shared. “There are no more leaks in my ceiling. It’s made a big difference.”
She has already encouraged a friend to sign up for an energy audit. “I want to thank everybody so much from the bottom of my heart,” she said. “You don’t know what a blessing that was.”
Learn more about our Energy Efficiency programs at haconcapecod.org/program-services/energy-efficiency
