Affordable Homes on Ward & Chester Streets & Cloverfield Way
Location: 9 Ward Street & 19 Chester Street, North Falmouth; 150 Cloverfield Way, East Falmouth
Applicant: Falmouth Affordable Housing Committee
Allocation: $250,000
Year/Article: November 2006, A30
In 2006, the Falmouth Affordable Housing Committee requested $250,000 from the CPFund, which Town Meeting appropriated, to fill financing gaps for a $599,400 development by the Falmouth Housing Corporation of two, two-bedroom homes on Ward and Chester streets in North Falmouth and one three-bedroom home on Cloverfield Way in East Falmouth.
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.
The homes on Ward and Chester streets were expected to sell for $130,000 each; the home on Cloverfield Way for $150,000. They were priced to be affordable to households earning 70 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI) but available to households earning up to 80 percent of AMI. Two of the homes offered local preference to Falmouth residents; the other was open to others including Falmouth residents, as required by fair housing laws. The Housing Corporation contracted with Cape Homeownership Center (CHOC) to market and sell the units by lottery.
Land donated by the Town, a construction loan from the Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank, Falmouth Housing Corporation equity, a grant from the Falmouth Affordable Housing Fund, and sale proceeds were additional sources of funding. The homes were completed and occupied in 2009.