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Photo Pru Sowers
Artist John Choly stands outside the door of his new home. |
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John Mandeville and next-door neighbor Lisa Pate. |
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A home of their own
Residents put human face on housing dilemma
By Pru Sowers
Banner Staff
PROVINCETOWN — A debate over affordable housing here began on a deeply human note in July 2006, when the 11 tenants in the Figurehead House, an apartment complex that had housed some of its residents for almost two decades, were evicted in preparation for a sale.
That sale has yet to occur. But some of those tenants, including Marj Conn, a local theater director and producer, were forced to leave town when they couldn’t find another year-round apartment with similar monthly terms. Their heartfelt protests over their plight moved both residents and town leaders, and spurred an ongoing campaign to create more affordable rental and homeownership units in the hope of maintaining the town’s community.
That campaign, however, has perhaps necessarily veered away from the personal, the human factor, towards statistics and research and contracts, the often time-consuming building blocks needed to bring vision to reality.
This month, though, the human factor returns to the forefront, when the sale of the last apartment in the 12-unit Gull’s Nest affordable homeownership complex on Sandy Hill Lane will close, ending one saga — that of politics and financing and construction — and beginning the next, more human one.
Sense of belonging
“I need my home. If I’ve got that and it’s constant, I can weather anything,” said Elisa Urbinati, co-owner of Miandra, a gift and jewelry store at 199 Commercial St. “I can exhale.”
Breathing was something Urbinati didn’t do much of when it came to housing in Provincetown. She relocated here from London to open the store four seasons ago and had to move her home residence three times in the first three years, a victim of rising rents and a last landlord who decided he could make more money renting seasonally than year-round.
Since she moved into Gull’s Nest in May, Urbinati feels more like she “belongs here.” Ownership makes you pay attention to what’s going on because you have a stake in the town, she said. One result of that is that she kept Miandra open on weekends last winter and is planning on doing the same this year, helping create a year-round community the town is urgently trying to reestablish.
“My first two years I didn’t spend winters here. I didn’t feel like I was anywhere,” she said. “A group of us business owners decided, why not [stay open in the winter]? If that encourages people to come out here because we’re open, great.”
Luck, good and bad
John Mandeville has had incredibly good and incredibly bad luck this year. The good luck occurred on March 1, when he moved into Gull’s Nest after winning one of the two housing lotteries held for the complex. The bad luck came six weeks later, when his aorta burst, almost killing him and sending him into a long recovery that he is just now coming out of.
Mandeville, formerly a nurse at the Cape End Manor and now working in the same role at the Barnstable County Correctional Facility, had moved to Provincetown two and a half years ago, staying with a friend and then renting a place in North Truro. After his surgery, friends held a fundraiser for him at the Surf Club, with the Grab Brothers contributing the music, raising over $1,000. That money helped out a lot while he was out of work, Mandeville said.
“The people in this place,” he said, referring to Gull’s Nest, “are people I can count on now. That’s nice to have that security.”
Mandeville’s next door neighbor, Lisa Pate, was one of the ones who checked in on him regularly during his recovery. Pate has lived in Provincetown full-time for seven years, working as a year-round housekeeper at Bayshore condominiums. She and her son, who is going to college this fall, moved into a two-bedroom unit at Gull’s Nest in February, the first time Pate had owned a home of her own.
“I don’t have to worry about anybody kicking me out or anything. I’m not moving anywhere. I like Provincetown. I like the diversity and I feel comfortable here,” she said.
Mandeville agreed.
”When I came here [Gull’s Nest] I decided I wanted to stay until I die. I’m comfortable with that idea, especially when I’ve been faced with what I’ve been faced with lately,” he said, smiling.
Artists find a home
Nicoletta Poli is a well-known local artist who owns the Poli Gallery at 389 Commercial St. The gallery has been open for eight years but Poli has been in Provincetown even longer — 27 years. The two-bedroom apartment she purchased is one of the larger units, big enough for Poli to have her painting studio there.
“I love it,” she said. “I love having a little piece of Provincetown after 27 years. After living in town for so long, I finally feel I’m part of the town. I’m going to town meetings. I never did that before. I feel like I have an investment.”
Another artist also moved into Gull’s Nest. John Choly, a mixed-media artist, has lived in Provincetown full-time for nine years. He had rented three different apartments since moving here — two in Provincetown and one in North Truro — which all were put up for sale by their owners, forcing him to move on.
“I love the place so much I would have found a way to stay,” Choley said, referring to the last time he was evicted. “But [Gull’s Nest] was the chance of a lifetime. The stars, ducks, whatever, all lined up. It stabilized my life.”
Reeling under $20,000 in debt he incurred when he opened his own gallery in 2002, which lasted only one summer, Choly had moved in with a friend, sleeping on a couch while he worked to pay off the debt. He now works for the Provincetown General Store in the summer and year-round at the Atlantic Spice Company.
“I work my butt off. I wasn’t looking for a free ride. I feel like I’ve attained spiritual adulthood now. I’ve lived on the edge too much,” Choly said.
Confidence in the future
Jeff Evans won the smallest unit in the complex in the lottery. But Evans, a year-round maintenance worker at the Provincetown Inn, says it works just fine for him. Previously, he had been forced out of a rental apartment in Provincetown and ended up living at the inn, an arrangement that was fine but which put Evans on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
That’s something Evans, who has lived in Provincetown since 1977 and who also works as a commercial fisherman part of the year, did not particularly like. Owning his own apartment gives him a sense of responsibility, he said, and confidence in a future.
“This isn’t much,” he said, gazing around his small apartment. “But it took me 47 years to get here. I can’t imagine living anywhere else. I’ve always envisioned a place and now I have it,” he said.
psowers@provincetownbanner.com
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Aug 14th, 2008