Dozens of rooms available on AirBnb at Martha’s Vineyard amid claims of island ‘housing crisis’
Dozens of modest properties and homes are available for rent on AirBnb on Martha’s Vineyard, DailyMail.com can reveal, although the island’s leading homelessness expert says there was no affordable housing in which to place migrants.
Private rooms and short stays are offered for $180 a night, which could have been used as a stopgap for migrants to house.
Lisa Belcastro, the island’s homelessness director, yesterday claimed the affluent area was experiencing a ‘housing crisis’.
Speaking after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sent two planes loaded with migrants to the pretty coastal town, Belcastro said the island could not bear the addition of 50 more people.
Belcastro, who herself lives in a lavish, $3.6 million four-bedroom, four-bathroom property in an isolated part of the island, is one of the liberal officials who declared it a “humanitarian emergency. — reacting as they would to a hurricane.
His claims were backed up by Governor Charlie Baker, who said Martha’s Vineyard, with a population of 15,000, is “not equipped to provide sustainable housing” for migrants.
Earlier in the day, he announced plans to ferry illegal immigrants to the mainland to Joint Army Base Cape Cod, 32 miles away.
Lisa Belcastro says the island faces a shortage of affordable housing, with a median home price of around $1 million. She told reporters that at “some point they have to move somewhere else” because the island is suffering from a “housing crisis”.
The 50 migrants who arrived at Martha’s Vineyard are now being shipped on a 32-mile journey to a military base on Cape Cod on Friday
The median house in Martha’s Vineyard is worth nearly $800,000, according to the census, and the median household income is $77,370 – well above the national average of $67,521.
The properties available on the website range from $180 a night to $10,000 to more lavish multimillion-dollar homes.
They could be used to house migrants – but clearly they would not fall into the category of ‘affordable housing’.
The Island Housing Trust has also set up a system for one-, two- and three-bedroom single-family homes in the area – with properties available in at least 14 streets.
It’s unclear if this was an option to use the homes, which are priced between $150,000 and $300,000 to households earning between $35,000 and $100,000.
Martha’s Vineyard also has a Rental Assistance Program, which spans across all six cities on the island, for residents whose median income is below 80% of the area.
Belcastro, who herself lives in a lavish, $3.6 million four-bed, four-bathroom property in a remote part of the island, is one of the liberal officials who have declared it a “humanitarian emergency. “.
The JBCC joint-use base where migrants are currently being taken is home to five military commands training for missions at home and abroad, and has been used as a hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic
DeSantis sent two planes of 50 migrants to the affluent island yesterday and is now threatening to send more to Delaware – following Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s ‘master plan’
On Friday morning, three buses stopped outside St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Edgartown to take the mostly Venezuelan migrants on the first leg of their journey to the ferry.
Residents also appeared to be turning on each other, blaming their neighbors for not allowing migrants access to their “summer rentals”.
One resident wrote on social media that immigration authorities are supposed to ‘get them off the island to be processed so they are no longer in our backyard’.
Others continued to lament the housing issues, writing: “The Vineyard has an acute housing crisis. Everyone has to work together”.
Some residents found themselves in the crosshairs for asking about the installation of new locks on their property soon after the migrants arrived.
Lisa Belcastro did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted by DailyMail.com.
Nearly 1,000 migrants have been released to sleep on the streets of the Texas border town of El Paso amid a wave of illegal crossings that overwhelms Border Patrol facilities.
Florida Governor DeSantis further escalates war on immigration in Democratic-run areas by threatening to fly illegal migrants into President Biden’s home state of Delaware .
The properties available on the website range from $180 a night to $10,000 to more lavish multimillion-dollar homes. They could be used to house migrants – but they clearly wouldn’t fall into the category of ‘affordable housing’
The author herself lives in a $3.6 million property, which has a swimming pool as well as four bedrooms and bathrooms in a secluded part of the island.
Republicans have stepped up their attacks on the Biden administration as they try to make immigration the theme of November’s midterm elections.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre took aim at DeSantis and Abbott at a press conference today, urging other Republicans who disagree with their ‘plan’ to ‘talk up “.
She said: “It’s a problem and we’ve been clear about it, it’s a problem that’s inhumane, it’s heinous and we shouldn’t use people, migrants, who are fleeing communism as a political pawn.”
DaSantis accused critics of his decision to ferry migrants to Martha’s Vineyard as a “signal of virtue”, saying their concern for the welfare of migrants was a “fraud”.
He said: “The minute even a small fraction of what these border towns deal with every day is brought to their front door, they go crazy and they are so upset that this is happening.”
It comes after Governor Greg Abbott dispatched 101 illegal migrants outside Vice President Kalama Harris’ home in Washington DC yesterday – just days after she said the border was ‘secure’.
The migrants were ordered to board buses for the 1.5-hour trip from the island to the military base on Cape Cod where they will be given “dormitory” type accommodation.
Harris said the border was “secure” in an interview on Sunday and has now found herself in the middle of an attack by Gov. Greg Abbott on Democratic immigration rules.
Yesterday she refused to answer questions about the sensational escalation, as Abbott continues his campaign against so-called ‘sanctuary cities’.
An unidentified man filmed outside the Naval Observatory on Thursday told Fox News: “The border is open, not closed.” Everyone thinks the border is open.
“It’s open because we’re going in. We come for free, no problem. We came illegally, not legally.
Vice President Harris remained silent on the issue when she entered the Naval Observatory on Friday, after refusing to answer questions about the issue on Thursday.
However, her husband Doug Emhoff said: ‘I have a reaction. I think it was shameful. They are human beings. They are people.
“They needed to be treated with dignity, kindness and respect and they weren’t.
“And we have so-called leaders in this country who, rather than focusing on what’s good for the public in their own state, are using people as pawns for a political coup.”
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