Jose came to Nantucket in 2000 from El Salvador, where he was trained as a mechanic. A friend lured him to the island with promises of good pay and plentiful work. Jose knew the housing situation was tough (he heard tales of people sleeping in closets), but his friend helped him secure a temporary rental.

He went to work immediately, first doing chimney repair and then as a mechanic at Don Allen Ford. For a few years, he did the Nantucket shuffle- sharing a room during the summer and relocating to bigger accommodations during the winter. When he was offered employee housing from Don Allen, he lived there until he was able to save enough for his family to join him on island.

In a few years, Jose started working for the Town of Nantucket’s Department of Public Works (DPW). He found housing that could accommodate his wife and daughter, and his family moved here. After many years apart, they were finally together again. They had another baby. Life was good.

One day in 2016, their landlord notified them their rental house would be demolished and the property was to be re-developed. They had to move. At this point, Jose had an extensive network of friends and customers, but he could not find any rental housing that met his family’s needs. Things looked grim, and his family began preparations to leave the island. Then Jose’s boss, former Town Engineer Silvio Genao, suggested Jose fill out paperwork with Housing Nantucket.

“We believe God puts everything we need in front of us at the right moment,” Jose said. “And that’s what happened.”

Just at the right moment, Jose and his family were offered a Housing Nantucket rental home in Surfside. The rent for the two-bedroom cottage was designed to be affordable, based on their moderate income. Jose and his family could remain together.

“A lot of my friends aren’t so lucky,” Jose explained. “Families are separated, with the mother and children living in a room on one end of the island, and the father living in a different neighborhood. One of my friends shares a room with other workers during the week, then on the weekend he travels to Hyannis where his family must live. It’s very sad.”

“Housing Nantucket’s rental housing is priced at a level that is affordable to us so we can survive,” continued Jose. “We value our privacy, and appreciate that we aren’t living with a lot of other people. We can educate our children the way we see fit and without interference from others. None of this would be possible without Housing Nantucket.”

Donor support enables Housing Nantucket to offer quality affordable rental housing to Nantucket’s workforce- people like Jose, who keep this island running. Your generosity fuels our success stories. Thank you.