Eastham trust seeks longer community housing plan, to issue RFP in September

Paul, a town staffer leading the effort, told the Affordable Housing Trust that the state requires a 5‑year housing production plan but that Eastham would benefit from a longer community housing plan that includes a deeper needs assessment.

"The state has a goal that every town should have at least 10% of their year on housing stock be affordable at 80% or below AMI," Paul said, arguing the town needs a more robust dataset than the standard census measures to make targeted local policy and to support state advocacy. Paul said he has a draft RFP and would like to release it in September and start consultant work in October, with an estimated 5–6 month timeline to completion.

Trust members asked for current SHI numbers and for the plan to include economic and school‑enrollment impacts. Rachel reported Eastham has "a little over 3%" of its housing on the Subsidized Housing Inventory — about 116 units — and the group discussed how a longer planning horizon could improve local arguments for targeted preferences in state programs.

The Trust directed staff to coordinate the RFP with an ongoing Holmes Road economic and land‑use market analysis so the housing consultant can reuse market data rather than duplicate work. Paul said the 5‑year production table required by the state would be nested inside the broader plan and must be endorsed by the select board and planning board before submission to the state.