Reaction delayed? Real estate prices on Cape Cod are driving police and fire departments further away

For many people, purchasing a home on Cape Cod or the islands is out of reach. The problem particularly affects first responders, especially if they must live near the station. In the first part of this series we met a firefighter family with several generations for whom buying a home has become more difficult with each generation. Now, in Part 2, CAI’s Jennette Barnes talks to police officers about the housing crisis and reports on what some communities are doing to address the problem.

A phone rings in the operations center of the Barnstable Police Department.

“Barnstable Police, recorded line.”

The dim lighting makes it easier for three dispatchers and a police officer to each monitor seven computer screens as well as security footage on other screens in the room.

Officer Brandon Sanders is here at the station. He’s part of a unit that focuses on mental health, substance abuse, and crisis intervention – and he was recently able to move to Cape Cod after working with the department for about four years.

In a conference room at the station, Sanders sits down and talks about the high housing costs that kept him from the Cape.

“I was a police officer in the city of Hull,” he says. “I lived in Pembroke at the time because the market was already tough. I couldn’t afford a house near Hull.”

When he joined the Barnstable Police Department, his commute was an hour, so he sold the house in Pembroke and bought something closer, in Plymouth.

“I certainly looked at Cape at the time,” he says. “For the money I was getting from the bank, it was neither sensible nor a good financial move for me to go across the bridge.”

Many of the homes in his price range required $50,000 to $100,000 worth of work before he could move in, he says. When he finally moved to Cape Cod, it was only possible because his partner already owned a home in Centerville.

Sitting next to Sanders at a long table is Sergeant Corey Frederickson, who has worked for the Barnstable Police Department for ten years and is responsible for recruitment and training.

He says if officers don’t live nearby, it takes them longer to respond to a serious situation, especially in the summer – and that’s not all.

“Another problem that has arisen because officers no longer live in the area is that we have a regional SWAT team, so towns from all over the Cape provide officers for that emergency unit,” he says. “And if officers don’t live in the Cape or further away, that delays the emergency response that we may need.”

Jennette Barnes

CAI

He says the housing situation also makes it difficult to hire employees, as not everyone wants to commute.

The starting salary for a Barnstable police officer without a college degree is about $67,000 – well into the worrying range. Households earning $100,000 or less are being pushed out by wealthier Cape Cod families, housing activists say.

“Either they’ve been priced out of the market or there’s no supply at all in that particular group,” says Jen Cullum, director of community engagement and advocacy at the nonprofit Housing Assistance Corporation. “And that’s – that’s the real problem.”

She is working to reach what she calls the “missing middle.” She says many people on Cape Cod earn too much for traditional affordable housing, but still can’t find housing, even with incomes of up to $120,000 a year.

“And these are the people who move our economy forward and steer our public safety in the right direction,” she says.

They’re trying to buy homes in a market where the average single-family home sells for about $700,000. And many aren’t successful.

So what can the police and fire department do?

Some, including Barnstable Police and Orleans Fire Departments, have their employees live farther from the station, where housing costs may be lower. And to accommodate longer commutes, some fire departments have hired extra staff so they are less reliant on off-duty personnel being called from home in an emergency, says Orleans Fire Chief Geof Deering.

“Having firefighters come from home has proven to no longer be an effective model, at least not for Orleans,” he says. “And I think almost every fire department on Cape Cod has changed their staffing and deployment model to reflect that.”

Some emergency workers are allowed to live further away. However, a long commute is not the goal. How about making it easier for them to live close to their place of work?

Communities across the Cape Region are responding to this need.

Some housing associations sell homes with title restrictions as affordable for income-qualified buyers.

Many efforts focus on rental housing, including the renovation of the former Cape Cod 5 building in Orleans to create 62 apartments for people of varying incomes.

Provincetown offers property owners financial incentives to convert short-term or mostly vacant apartments into year-round rentals through a program called Lease to Locals.

And in Barnstable, the city is encouraging housing concentration in Hyannis by allowing four-story buildings on Main Street.

Deering, chief of the Orleans Fire Department, says communities need to think of new ways to accommodate their employees, as well as people in other professions.

“The next question is how we deal with this as a fire department, but also as a community as a whole,” he says. “Because you could take ‘fire department’ out of the housing issue and tie it to almost any other industry on Cape Cod, and you would have a very similar situation.”

If only we could call our emergency services to rush to the scene with sirens and blue lights and solve the housing crisis. In the meantime, cities are tackling one idea, one project and one affordable home at a time.

To read part 1 of this story, Click here.

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