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Cranberry Isles Working to Make
Housing Affordable for Year-Round Families
The Great Cranberry Community Center is the heart of that
island, enhancing the lives of locals. |
A house listed for
sale on Great Cranberry in May carried a price of $600,000.
Another house, with
five acres, recently sold for $700,000. Land can go for $50- or
$60-thousand an acre—and that’s not in sight of water.
Those are
not-so-extreme examples of what property tends to sell for in
Cranberry Isles. With everything so expensive, locals lament that
the islands’ sons and daughters are leaving because they themselves
can’t afford to live where they grew up.
A dozen years ago,
the town’s year-round population was 189. Now, it is 128.
Even what locals
call “the best view of Acadia National Park—without the traffic”
can’t keep people living here.
Worried about
community continuity, the town today is working to make housing more
affordable.
Toward that end,
the non-profit Cranberry Isles Realty Trust was formed in 1999. It
grew out of a town committee intended to attract and retain
year-round families. A further goal is to make home ownership
possible for those who wish to stay.
Three houses are
currently part of the project, and will rent for about $400 a month.
Prospective tenants must have viable plans for employment while
living on the islands.
Because most of the
funding has come from a state Community Development Block Grant, the
local Trust works according to federal income-eligibility
regulations under the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
There are two
houses on Great Cranberry, and a third on Little Cranberry. The
Islesford house, a modular Cape-style home, was constructed on
town-owned land last summer. Once a well is dug, a couple will
settle into the new home.
One of the rental
homes at Great Cranberry has been occupied for several months. It
was purchased by the Trust as its first property to get the project
going. The second Cranberry house, not yet occupied, was given to
the town for use by the Trust, and only had to be removed from its
site and located to town-owned land. |
