Applications Being Accepted For 107 Main St. Units

ORLEANS – When Housing Assistance Corporation opened up the application process for its 14-unit affordable housing development at 107 Main St. earlier this month, the nonprofit received 60 applications the first day alone.

The figure speaks to the demand that currently exists for affordable and workforce housing not just in Orleans, but across the Cape and Islands and other parts of the state. But for Alisa Magnotta, chief executive officer of HAC, the impending opening of the long-planned project is more evidence that the town’s efforts to create housing for those most in need of it are moving in the right direction.

“Orleans has really been on this pursuit of allowing housing and providing the right environment and ecosystem for housing for 10 years,” said Magnotta. “We’ve noticed there’s a problem, and have been changing zoning, changing sewer, changing culture in the town to allow it. It’s pretty cool.”

Planning for the 14 units, on land that used to house a former Masonic Lodge, dates back to before the pandemic. For Magnotta, the project is an example of how local municipalities and housing advocates can effectively work together to address the region’s ongoing housing crisis.

“This started as [an affordable] housing trust project,” she said. “This was their vision, and we’re just executing their vision. More towns should be doing the same.”

Ground was broken on the project earlier this year. The project includes 12 units that will be rented to people who make up to 80 percent of the area median income in Barnstable County. Two more units will be rented to tenants who make less than 30 percent of AMI, with rent capped at 30 percent of the tenant’s household income. The balance of the rent will be covered through a voucher from the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, said David Quinn, HAC’s vice president of real estate development. 

“If that tenant moves, that unit still has that voucher with it,” he noted.

There is also a local preference component to the project, Quinn said. Of the 14 units, 70 percent will be reserved for people who live, work or have children attending school in Orleans.

Applications for the units will be accepted through July 31. That deadline will be followed by a lottery in mid or late August to select qualified applicants who can then apply for the units. Quinn said applicants chosen through the lottery will go through a “normal tenant screening process” that includes background checks, exploring local preference qualifications and vetting to ensure that they can afford the unit.

Those who are not chosen in the lottery will be placed on a waiting list and will be selected as vacancies arise.

Quinn said demand for units has been high among HAC’s other projects, including a 42-unit development in Buzzards Bay that he said garnered close to 1,000 applications. He anticipates that demand will similarly be high for the Orleans units.

“I would expect we’ll have a pretty huge application pool on this,” he said.

Construction at 107 Main St. is about 75 percent complete, Quinn said. Much of the ongoing work is indoors, he said, while landscaping outside has also begun. HAC anticipates receiving a certificate of occupancy for the property in October, and tenants could be ready to move in by Nov. 1, he said.

“We’re crossing our fingers,” he said. “Maybe it will be a little sooner than that, but I think that’s a realistic move-in date.”

HAC will host two virtual information sessions June 18 and July 14 to go over the particulars of the project, including details such as utilities, washer/dryer units, storage and other unit and development features. The sessions will be held at 6 p.m. on both days. Those interested in attending are asked to sign up online at www.haconcapecod.org/properties/107-main-street.