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.
- Eligible Properties must be located on Nantucket, 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 multi-year incentives based on the number of Qualified Tenants placed in the property and based on the size of the unit. The maximum grant amount for each property is 3 incentives ($27,000) for the first year. Property Owners who renew their lease with a Qualified Household may be eligible for additional incentives in Year 2 and Year 3, equal to 50% and 25% of their Year 1 incentive amount, respectively.
* 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 locals 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, at least 50% of the tenants must be working at least 30 hours per week for an employer based on Nantucket or with a physical location on Nantucket or contributing to the community in another way with exceptions given for disability, retirees, and caretakers, and must meet the income limits of the program.
4) Rent Cap:
To control for affordability, there is a rent cap by unit size.
If Property Owners sign a Long-Term Lease renewal with a Qualified Household, they may increase the rental rate by up to 5% per year to remain eligible for Year 2 and Year 3 Incentives. Exceptions to this cap may be granted if the Property Owner provides documentation demonstrating that their ownership costs have increased by more than 5% in Year 2 or Year 3.
5) Tenant and Household Eligibility:
As you are screening tenant groups, be sure to review that the tenants are a Qualified Household. 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.
- A Year-Round resident who derives income from self-employment whose business is in Nantucket.
- A non-resident who has accepted a full-time job offer from a Nantucket employer establishment.
- A person unable to work or who does not have a work history due to a qualifying disability as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
- Currently a Year-Round resident of Nantucket and contributing to the Nantucket community by serving on a Town board/committee, volunteering with a local non-profit or community based organization, participating in the Town’s art/cultural scene, or providing a similar benefit to the community.
- Retirees who have lived in Nantucket for 10 of the past 12 months.
- A full-time, parent or guardian of a child under the age of 4.
- A dependent child of a Qualified Tenant.
6) Qualified Tenant Income Limits:
Qualified Tenants shall have a total household income that does not exceed 240 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). Note, this limit is set by Nantucket’s Affordable Housing Trust and is subject to modifications. The following chart contains the maximum household income limits for 2025:
Household Size
|
Maximum Gross Income
|
1
|
$251,550
|
2
|
$287,400
|
3
|
$323,400
|
4
|
$359,250
|
5
|
$388,050
|
6
|
$416,850
|
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.
Required documentation will consist of some or all of the following:
- Copy of government issued photo ID
- Local workers must provide:
- Two recent paystubs from the past 60 days from an employer located on or that serves clientele on Nantucket, or;
- A signed employer or offer letter that includes the following details:
- Employer name, logo, and address
- Name of employee
- Anticipated start date (if new offer) or when they started originally
- Number of hours (ie; full time, 40 hours week / seasonal, 20 hours week)
- Pay rate (hourly or salary)
- Location of where they are working
- Name, signature of manager / HR, and date signed, or;
- If self-employed, required documents include:
- If the business has been operational for more than 1 year
- Most recent tax returns, or;
- If the business has been operating for less than one year, is off the books, or tenant is self employed via gig work
- Internal Profits & Losses statement, or;
- Employer letter, or;
- 3 recent Contracts that show volume of work/pay
- Non-working disabled adult(s) must provide:
- Copy of disability benefits, or;
- Proof of supplemental income
- Tenant(s) who contribute to the community in some way other than local employment:
- A signed letter from the local organization, board, committee, gallery, group etc.. that they are involved with that provides their weekly time commitment to the organization, responsibilities and details of involvement, and how long they have been involved.
- Retired person(s) must provide:
- A Social Security benefit verification letter sent to a Nantucket address dated 12 months prior to the application date and a letter from the most recent month
- Full-time parents must provide:
- Most recent copy of tax returns showing each child as a dependent
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. NOTE: Completed grant applications must be submitted to the jurisdiction within 45 days from the start of a lease term.
- Town of Nantucket will issue the first half of the grant payment to the Property Owner within forty five (45) days of receiving a completed application packet.
- Town of Nantucket will 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.
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.
