Last summer, a group from Cranberry Isles traveled to Frenchboro in the spirit of competition, and an epic battle of softball unfolded on the Frenchboro Town Field. On Thursday, June 9th, the atmosphere was more congenial as a group of Cranberry Islanders traveled to Frenchboro to meet with the Frenchboro Future Development Corporation (FFDC), the local nonprofit group dedicated to affordable housing. The event was arranged so that citizens of the Cranberries could learn about both the successes and problems with the Frenchboro affordable housing project and then apply that knowledge to their own affordable housing initiative, the Cranberry Islands Realty Trust (CIRT).
The two towns are similar in many respects: small physical size and year-round population, and high real estate prices. However, the towns have had very different approaches towards developing affordable housing.
The FFDC was given a donation of 35 acres of land, which it subdivided, into 12 one-acre lots with the remainder put aside as common recreational space. The FFDC constructed seven houses and then sold the remaining parcels specifically as lots designated for affordable housing.
CIRT purchased and renovated existing homes on the Cranberry Isles to manage as affordable rentals. CIRT currently manages three properties: one on Little Cranberry (Islesford) and two on Great Cranberry. One of the houses on Great Cranberry is unoccupied.
Neither scenario has been ideal. CIRT is hampered by federal income guidelines. While the FFDC has been very successful in recent years, none of the original families who participated in the program have stayed on Frenchboro.
After touring the affordable housing sites, the Cranberry coalition met with April Wiggins, one of the earliest of the “second-wave” of participants in the FFDC project. Wiggins emphasized the importance of either being familiar with, or having a realistic expectation of life on an isolated island…particularly in February.
“You have to know how to keep yourself entertained and busy,” she said, adding that she had “at least five layers of paint” on every wall in the house. “This is particularly important for women. “The men are out fishing and in heaven, but there aren’t a lot of options for women.”
Wiggins was also candid about the fact that the organization had made a few mistakes: the houses were built without basements, some of the lots originally had shared septic systems and the FFDC prohibits the properties from being used for any businesses, even home businesses.
The FFDC Board, joining the Cranberry group for a discussion over lunch, echoed Wiggins’s view that they had made some mistakes as well as her assertion that success depended upon participants who were familiar with life on an island.
“We had some guy from Oklahoma who wanted to move here and have a petting zoo!” said Frenchboro’s David Lunt. “We called it `Fantasy Island’ because the media got ahold of what we were doing and made it seem like we were giving people free land, a free house and a free boat if they came to Frenchboro!”
By the time lunch was over, it was clear that the information garnered from Frenchboro’s experience would be helpful to the Cranberry Isles.
“It was really beneficial to see how another community was handling the affordable housing problem, and to see a different approach to managing the situation in action,” said Sonja Moser, a member of the Cranberry group.