Affordable Homes on Sam Turner Road

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Location: 167, 169, 173, 175 Sam Turner Road, East Falmouth
Applicant: Habitat for Humanity, Inc.
Allocation: $60,000
Year/Article: April 2006, A42

In 2006, Habitat for Humanity, Inc. requested and received $60,000 from the CPFund in partial support of a $684,000 project to build two two-family duplexes, with a front and back yard for each family, on Sam Turner Road in East Falmouth. The dwellings were sold to families with incomes at or below 65 percent of area median income (AMI), without their having to pay more than 30 percent of their gross income for a no-interest mortgage, insurance, taxes and related fees. Habitat sells its homes deed restricted in perpetuity to be affordable upon resale. The future resale price is indexed to AMI to ensure ongoing affordability to families with that income profile.

According to the Cape Cod Commission’s “Affordable Housing on Cape Cod” (October 2014), in 2014 Falmouth needed housing for approximately 600 first-time homebuyer residents who were earning between $45,000 and $85,000 annually. Massachusetts is one of the most expensive housing markets in the country and Cape Cod is 10 percent more expensive than the rest of the Commonwealth. At the same time, wages on the Cape are 35 percent lower than they are in the rest of the Commonwealth. From 2005 to 2014, low-income households with housing problems increased by 34 percent on the Cape. In 2014, over 400 households qualifying for rent subsidies (Section 8 vouchers) were on the waiting list for affordable rental housing that qualified for and participated in Section 8.

Habitat requires that its homebuyers develop sweat equity during the construction of their homes, 500 hours for a two-adult family, 250 hours for a one-adult family. Other project funding came from Energy Star, County HOME Funds, the Federal Home Loan Bank, miscellaneous grants, donated services and materials, mortgage income from current Habitat homeowners, House sponsorship, and gifts from individuals, churches, businesses and fundraising events. The houses were completed, purchased and occupied in 2008.

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