Our View: Housing Is Needed

With a waiting list of some 1,000 patients, the nonprofit Outer Cape Health Services recently held community meetings to discuss its plan to increase the use of remote clinicians to provide telehealth services. Officials say they’ve been better able to recruit staff who can operate remotely than in-person and that transitioning some of its services to virtual appointments will better service its growing client list.

 Why is it so difficult to find doctors, nurses and other clinicians willing to take jobs on the Lower Cape? A quick check of real estate listings provides the clear and obvious answer.

 And yet there are those who continue to deny that more housing — for the entire range of income levels, not just low-income folks who qualify for subsidized “affordable” housing — is needed on the Lower Cape.

 At a recent zoning board hearing on the proposed 78-unit mixed housing development at the former Governor Prence Inn in Orleans, a member mused that maybe the town was building too much housing. Negative comments about affordable projects — always, of course, prefaced by “I support affordable housing, but…” — were also expressed at town meetings in Chatham and Harwich, and Brewster Town Meeting voters rejected using 10 of the 70-acre pond property for housing.

 This is a key reason there are not enough doctors, nurses and other professionals, along with workers in many other fields, in the region, why people commute from off-Cape or fill jobs that can be done remotely. Our cost of living is high, even for Massachusetts, but housing costs, still driven largely by second homeowners, are out of reach for most workers, even professionals like doctors and nurses, not to mention firefighters, teachers, police officers and others. 

 A major attitude change is needed. Places like the former Governor Prence property are perfect for the project being proposed. Two of the rental apartment buildings may be larger than we’re used to, but they will be located in a village center area and won’t be as out of scale as some have suggested. Likewise, Chatham’s Meetinghouse Road development will provide rentals in the same area as an industrial park, church and several businesses. And the Harwich Pine Oaks Village 4 and Marceline projects will be built over a long timeframe that will ensure their integration into the larger community.

 We need this housing. The problem was ignored for too long and got us into the hole we are now in. Ignoring it further will just make the hole deeper.