By Tom Lynch
This is a story about housing in Becket, but it begins 223 miles to the east on the island of Nantucket, about 30 miles south of Cape Cod.
When Maura Healey became governor of Massachusetts, she and her administration immediately realized the Commonwealth was deep into a housing crisis. A study done by her Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities concluded the state needed an additional 222,000 housing units by 2035 to shelter all its citizens. This included 10,000 “supportive housing units” for people at high risk of homelessness.
Nowhere was the housing crisis starker than on the island of Nantucket, where 64% of all housing is seasonal, expensive, and only used during the summer months. The median price of a home is more than $1.5 million, but the average income of year-round residents is about $72,000. According to a study done by the town, “Nantucket has an undeniable shortage of price-appropriate housing for people who work on Nantucket throughout the year.”
Both the state and the town concluded people who work on the island cannot afford to buy a home there.
When the Healey administration conducted its housing study, what it saw happening on Nantucket propelled it to examine what was happening in other seasonal communities, such as Becket, where more than 40% of housing units are second homes or seasonal.
To address the housing crisis, Healey signed into law the Affordable Homes Act (AHA) in August 2024, effective on February 25, 2025. The legislation authorizes $5.16 billion in spending over the next five years, along with nearly 50 policy initiatives to counter rising housing costs caused by high demand and limited supply.
The AHA has at least two provisions that will affect Becket citizens immediately: a Seasonal Communities provision and a provision addressing Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs).
The AHA designated 25 Massachusetts communities as “Seasonal.” Seventeen include all Cape Cod towns and Nantucket, and eight, including Becket, are in Berkshire County. Among other things, to become a designated seasonal community, more than 40% of a town’s housing units must be second homes or seasonal.
Designated Seasonal Communities may:
• Create year-round housing occupancy restrictions;
• Develop housing with a preference for municipal workers;
• Establish a Year-Round Housing Trust Fund to create affordable housing for year-round residents;
• Create year-round housing for artists;
• Develop a comprehensive housing needs assessment;
• Allow tiny homes to be built by right and used as year-round housing; and,
• Increase the property tax exemption for homes that are the owner’s primary residence.
The 25 communities designated as seasonal must vote to accept the designation, and there is a warrant article for this purpose that will be voted on at this year’s Becket Town Meeting. However, because the $5.16 billion legislation did not specify how much money the state will provide each designated community, some are skittish about approving their designation. In early April the Town of Stockbridge’s Select Board voted not to include a vote on the issue at its upcoming Town Meeting.
The Affordable Homes Act also allows homeowners to create ADUs by right in single-family zoning districts. ADUs may be half the square footage of a primary residence or 900 square feet, whichever is smaller. They may be within a home, attached to a home, or detached from it; and they must conform to Becket’s water, sewage, and electrical requirements. But, by law, the town’s restrictions must be no more limiting than the Act’s zoning stipulations. To address ADUs the Becket Planning Board added Section 6.9 to the Town’s zoning regulations. The new section prohibits ADUs from being used as short-term rentals because the purpose of these tiny homes is to add permanent housing for communities.
Unlike the Seasonal Communities provision, having Accessory Dwelling Units in Becket does not require approval by the Town. No one knows how many ADUs will pop up in Becket in the foreseeable future. Still, at a Planning Board meeting I attended for this story in February, three people were also there wanting to know when they could build theirs.
Meanwhile, back on Nantucket where we began this story, Town Assessor Robert Ranney told me the island is already far down the ADU road. He said, “Out of the approximately 9,700 properties where people live, around 2,900 have more than one dwelling, such as a main house with a cottage or extra apartment.”
