Harwich Housing Production Plan Gets Mixed Review

HARWICH – To purchase a home in town, residents must earn nearly twice as much as the median annual income.

According to the latest draft of the town’s housing production plan, housing demand continues to outstrip supply, driving up prices and making it extremely difficult for many residents to own their own home or even rent.

The cost of housing has out-distanced income by a wide margin. According to the draft plan, presented to the planning board on Oct. 22 by consultant Karen Sunnarborg, median income increased by 92 percent between 2000 and 2021 while the median single-family home price increased by 195 percent. The median single-family home was priced at $670,000 at the end of 2023, requiring an annual income of $160,200 to purchase. The median annual income in Harwich is $79,641.

The community is losing younger residents and gaining older ones. The prediction, according to the plan, is that the town’s population will remain relatively stable through 2030 but will then decline. 

 The town has to focus on expanding year-round rental units with a focus on affordable and attainable units, according to the plan. Market rents for a two-bedroom unit are about $2,400 a month, requiring an income of about $106,000. There are long waits for subsidized housing in town.

 In Harwich, about one-third of households experience cost burdens while 14 percent experience severe cost burdens. Of the 2,249 households in town with incomes at or below 80 percent of average median income, 63 percent have cost burdens and 32 percent have severe cost burdens. 

 The town should provide a diverse housing stock and make starter housing and first time housing a priority, as well as focus on the most vulnerable residents and empty nesters. 

 Ways of addressing these issues include capitalizing on the affordable housing trust, conducting ongoing community education, better defining housing responsibilities, and monitoring the subsidized housing inventory. The plan also recommends using suitable public property for housing and working to convert existing structures into affordable or attainable units. It also recommends creating second-story housing and infilling sites for additional units. 

 The plan also calls for expanding housing assistance programs such as adopting housing property tax exemptions, creating small repair grants, and accessory dwelling unit loan programs while also taking advantage of state block grant funding.

 “Where is the quantitative analysis about what is unique about Harwich?” asked Planning Board Chair J. Duncan Berry. “I personally had higher expectations. I think we’re about a generation-and-a-half behind the current status of knowledge in planning. I don’t know why we can’t be on top of the highest understanding from a planning view point.” 

He said there is an enormous amount of demographic data in the plan, but the numbers don’t relate to “quality of life.” The plan contains what the state wants to see, but not what’s coming out of the grassroots of Harwich, Berry said. 

“What are our requirements for, let’s say, what density might be? I think that is important,” he said.

 There are several multi-family developments in the works that are proposing affordable and attainable housing units. One is the Pine Oaks Village IV proposal near the intersection of Queen Anne Road and Main Street in North Harwich, which proposes 248 units. Another is the affordable housing trust proposal at 456 Queen Anne Rd., and there is a proposal to convert the former Eagle Pond Nursing Home into a transitional shelter that could house up to 79 families just across the line in Dennis.

“You’re loading up North Harwich with these large affordable housing buildings, asking one portion of town to do the heavy lifting,” said North Harwich resident Sherry Stockdale. “North Harwich will bear the brunt of the housing crisis while telling them to put a few units above the quaint coffee shops in the center of town.”

“I’m for affordable housing that conforms to the charm of the town,” said Pamela Kendall. “But don’t put these eyesores in.”

Kendall said all of the proposed units will bring in a lot of children, and the roads were not built to have children walking along the roads. She also said the mom and pop shops in town are going out of business and questioned whether there would be a shift to residents working for major corporations and living in massive housing projects.

 “Is that the plan for the town of Harwich?” asked Kendall. 

Housing Authority Chair Elizabeth Harder spoke to the recently approved state Affordable Home Act that will provide $5.16 billion for housing over the next several years. She highlighted the seasonal community designation in the act, which provides additional housing assistance for communities that have second home ownership of at least 35 percent.

Sunnarborg assured Harder that there are provisions in the plan addressing the seasonal community designation.

Jon Chorey wanted to know the impact of implementation of the plan on the schools, police, fire, department of public works and water-wastewater departments. He questioned budget and service impacts necessary to provide the services for an increased population. That information should be included in the plan, he said. 

Sunnarborg said there are projected increases in children attending the schools, although she added that there is excess capacity in the school system at this time. Sunnarborg agreed that information is not in the plan, but said it would be added to the document. 

Former town planner David Spitz, a member of the local planning committee that worked with Sunnarborg on the plan, said there are detailed considerations in the plan for what the community is or is not going to be in the next 10 to 20 years. He cautioned that the seasonal community aspect “is threatening to overtake us and change us much more than right now.” 

Spitz said housing strategies will not fit into all locations, adding that the two big affordable housing projects now being proposed are not near public transportation or on the sewer system. However, they are extremely important to the community, he said.

“Sometimes you have to take what you get because we’ve fallen so far behind,” Spitz said “It’s nice to see now that the affordable housing trust has got its act together. We’ve got some pretty nice projects coming along.”

The planning board will have to assess whether the projects are going to work in Harwich, he said. The town is doing better with seeking more affordable housing but it needs to develop better strategies for developing attainable housing, he said.

 Richard Waystack urged people to approve the plan, emphasizing the need to address affordable and attainable housing for the community workforce. He said that the last five real estate closings in Harwich averaged $1.01 million. While 13 affordable housing units were developed in the past two years, that number is far below the number of single home permits issued by the building department, he said.

 “When talking about the impacts on the town, the minute you mention affordable or attainable, people say ‘I believe in it, but not in my backyard,” Waystack said. “I praise the group that put this plan together. They looked at the impacts to housing in this community’.”

 The planning board is scheduled to vote on whether to approve the updated version of the housing production plan at its next session.