Nantucket residents have always relied on creativity, frugality, and resourcefulness to secure housing for themselves and their families. Our House-Recycling Program combines all three of these traits, in addition to providing an avenue for old houses to gain new lives.

An important part of our business model, private property owners frequently offer us homes slated for demolition when they’d like to see these structures reused. Federal tax code allows these individuals to claim a deduction when we accept their donation. But before we can accept the structure, we need to find a spot to put it. Town building code does not allow structures to be stored at a temporary location, rather they must be moved to their final destination.

First, we explore using the building for our own scattered-site affordable rental purposes. In this case, we use grants and other fundraising efforts to raise money to relocate the structure. Then we rent it to island families at below-market rates. The majority of our rental units were created this way, contributing to the preservation of the island not only by saving the structures, but also increasing access to well maintained rental housing for low- and middle-income year round residents.

When we are unable to use a dwelling that is offered to our organization, we try to find a third-party buyer, who would purchase the donated structure from our nonprofit. The buyer is responsible for moving the building to their land, and for all permitting and costs associated with relocating the structure. Housing Nantucket uses the proceeds raised from the sale of these buildings for our other community housing endeavors.

Anyone can buy a dwelling from Housing Nantucket, not just those who qualify for affordable housing. To get on our list of Buyers-in-the-Wings, click here and complete this electronic form.

In general, the process to purchase a relocatable Nantucket dwelling is as follows.

1. Buyer and Housing Nantucket coordinate a viewing of the property
2. Buyer consults with house mover and general contractor to determine feasibility of house move
3. Buyer and Housing Nantucket agree upon a purchase price (varies, but not less than $50,000)
4. Buyer provides Housing Nantucket with written offer-to-purchase and a $5K deposit
5. Buyer, donor and Housing Nantucket sign dwelling donation agreements
6. Buyer will seek HDC approval for move-on permit (if HDC does not allow building move, deposit will be refunded)
7. Buyer engages house mover and applies to the building department for the house move permits
8. Once the building permit is obtained, buyer delivers the balance of the purchase price to Housing Nantucket
9. House is moved to buyer’s land

Ideal homes for house-recycling are less than two stories tall, located close to a paved road, and small enough to move over-the-road in one piece.

For more information about this program, visit https://www.housingnantucket.org/house-recycling/#purchasing