1) Property Owner Requirements:
- Eligible Properties must be a single family home (primary or secondary dwelling), an accessory dwelling unit, a single room or multiple single rooms intended for occupancy living quarters (excluding commercial lodging). Excludes deed-restricted and subsidized units. Excludes new construction or newly acquired properties (in past 12 months) that are not owner-occupied which can be verified by residential exemption from the Town of Nantucket Assessor’s office.
- Eligible Properties must be located on Nantucket and be a legally permitted dwelling unit and each bedroom in the property must have a door and window.
- Eligible Properties must have not already been leased as a year-round rental in the past 12 months.
- The Applicant must be the owner of the property or legally represent the owner or ownership group.
2) Incentive Amounts:
The program provides one-time incentives based on the number of Qualified Tenants placed in the property and based on the size of the unit. The maximum grant amount is $27,000.
| Unit Size | Incentive Per
Qualified Tenant* | Max. Incentive
Per Unit |
|---|
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
* Dependent children will count as one (1) additional Qualified Tenant, regardless of the number of children present.
3) Securing Qualified Tenants:
You are responsible for securing your own tenants or you can hire a property manager to help you with sourcing and screening tenants. If you’d like, you can post your property for free on Placemate.com (just ask us for instructions). We have a database of local employees seeking housing and by posting on our site we automatically alert folks in our database that match your property criteria.
If you choose to, you can also post your property on Zillow or Craigslist, here is language you can use on your listing:
This rental is part of the Lease to Locals program, aimed at unlocking existing new rentals for local employees. To qualify for this property, tenants must be working at least 30 hours per week for an employer based on Nantucket or with a physical location on Nantucket, and must meet the income limits of the program.
4) Rent Cap:
To control for affordability, there is a rent cap by unit size:
- Private Room: $1,500/month
- Studio: $2,000/month
- 1BD: $2,700/month
- 2BD: $3,500/ month
- 3BD or greater: $4,000/month
5) Tenant and Household Eligibility:
Once you have found tenants you are ready to move forward with, make sure your tenants are a Qualified Household. Your incentive is based on the number of Qualifying Tenants. A Qualified Household is any group of individuals living together in one home as their primary residence, where at least half of the adults are Qualified Tenants. A Qualified Tenant is an adult who is not of blood relation or employed by the Property Owner and who meets at least one of the following criteria:
- Employed year-round at least 30 hours per week (over 1,500 hours per year) for an employer based on Nantucket or with a physical location on Nantucket. Exceptions to the 1,500 hours per year requirements can be made for education providers.
- Dependent children, which will count as one (1) additional Qualified Tenant, regardless of the number of children present.
- Meet one of the following exemptions:
- A person unable to work or who does not have a work history due to
qualifying for disability as defined by the Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA) - A full-time, parent or guardian of a child under the age of 4
6) Qualified Tenant Income Limits:
Qualified Tenants shall have a total household income that does not exceed 175 percent of the Nantucket County Area Median Income (AMI) Limits, adjusted for Household Size, established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The following chart contains the maximum household income limits for 2024:
Household Size | Maximum Gross Income |
1 | $187,600 |
2 | $214,375 |
3 | $241,150 |
4 | $267,925 |
5 | $289,450 |
6 | $310,800 |
7) Tenant Application:
Before you sign a lease with your tenants, we will verify their employment to ensure they are a Qualified Household and verify the number of Qualified Tenants. We do this by having all adult members of the household fill out the Lease to Locals Tenant Application. We will review each Tenant Application and get back to them with any missing documentation. To have us complete his step, send each adult tenant’s contact information (name, email, phone). Note this step can take 1-2 business days, depending on how responsive your tenants are.
8) Lease
Once you’ve signed a lease with a Qualified Household, the next step will be for us to send you a Property Owner & Lease Summary Form where you can upload a copy of your signed lease (make sure it is signed and dated by both you and the tenants).
9) Homeowner Application:
Once Placemate has reviewed your lease, we will send you a Property Owner Application requesting the following:
- Verification of Terms & Conditions (you initial)
- Property Details & Grant Amount (you review and sign)
- W9 Form (you fill out – please make sure you enter your SSN or EIN)
10) Move-in Confirmation:
After we have received your completed Property Owner Application, our final step is to verify that your tenants have moved in (via text, phone, or email). If the lease has not yet started, we will contact tenants on the first day of the lease.
11) Application Submission:
Once we have received confirmation that your tenants have moved in, we will submit your application packet for review and approval.
- Housing Natucket will issue the first half of the grant payment to the Property Owner within forty five (45) days of receiving a completed application packet.
- Housing Nantucket issue the second half of the grant payment to the Property Owner within forty five (45) days of the end of the lease.
- Payments shall be issued to the Property Owner, as their legal name(s) appear on recorded property ownership documents.
12) Mid-Point Checkin:
For 12 month+ leases only, at the mid-term point of the lease, Placemate will check in with both the tenants and Property Owner to ensure tenants are still in place. Review contingencies below for explanation of when the second payment may be withheld.
13) Year-End Checkin:
At the end of the lease, Placemate will check in with both the tenants and owner and submit a request for the second half of the incentive payment. Review contingencies below for explanation of when the second payment may be withheld.
