Martha’s Vineyard Hospital Building Apartments for Its Employees

Martha's Vineyard's lone hospital is building apartments for its employees, making living on the island more affordable for them.

If you have been looking for a job recently, you know pay has been the biggest selling point, but imagine being employed on one of our region's favorite islands, Martha's Vineyard.

I have several friends in law enforcement that work on the island and make the commute by boat several times a week, but what if you work at Martha's Vineyard Hospital, the only hospital on the island? Patient care means you won't always be able to hop onto the Seastreak Fast Ferry to get to work. Many openings at the hospital go unfilled because candidates aren't willing to make the commute via ferry or due to the lack of or price of housing on the island.

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The hospital began raising funds for what it calls the Housing For Healthcare Initiative back in 2021 when it started getting consistent feedback from prime candidates that the reason they declined an offer was due to the housing situation.

Since the hospital is a not-for-profit community hospital, any projects like these would require raising funds through fundraising events and grants.

It's a much-needed development on the island and will cover over 26 acres of land and have 48 apartment units. It will cost the hospital about $38 million and is considered workforce housing.  The hospital got approval from the state to build back in the middle of 2023 and had begun working on the infrastructure immediately to make this new community possible. The construction of the actual building started fairly recently.

It was hoped to have been completed by now but as with any project of this size, delays were expected. We reached out to a hospital representative to get a better timeline as to when this project will be completed and they have yet to respond.

It got me wondering, with so many people commuting an hour-plus to work because it's too expensive to live in the city, what if your job had housing for you at monthly rate you could afford? It could be one of the perk that gets all the people wanting to work for your company, especially companies that struggle to hire and retain quality candidates.

Would you want to live in employer-created and owned housing? Or would you rather keep your residence separate from having anything to do with your job? Let us know under this story on our Facebook page or send us an app chat or voice message through our app.