'Happy place': How Brewster turned an abandoned house into a beautiful affordable home

BREWSTER — Assistant Town Manager Donna Kalanick calls 212 Yankee Drive her "happy place."

Over the past several years, Brewster town officials quietly brought the once-abandoned house — near the bike path and adjacent to Stony Brook Elementary School and the Brewster Whitecaps field — back to life.

And now it's finally for sale.

"This whole time, we've been coming to the property and checking on it and the transformation," said Kalanick. "It's truly a joyous thing. When we can drive by and see a family, I can't wait for that day."

Purchasing and renovating houses needing repair to add to the town's affordable housing stock is model Brewster might be pioneering on Cape Cod, Kalanick said. Brewster had never done such a project before and she said she's unaware of other Cape towns trying the concept.

New model for preserving affordable housing

The three-bedroom, 1994-built house on just under half an acre will now remain among the 372 units on the town's subsidized housing inventory.

“It’s really important to us to keep what we have on the subsidized housing inventory, not just build new but to also keep the stock that we have in good condition,” said Kalanick.

If a similar situation presents itself in the future, Housing Coordinator Jill Scalise said the town will now have a road map to help lead the way.

Brewster's housing crisis

Just over 7% of Brewster's year-round housing is on that subsidized housing list.

Massachusetts' Chapter 40B law — a 54-year-old law meant to increase affordable housing in the state — requires that at least 10% of a community’s housing be affordable.

The subsidized housing inventory is used to measure a community’s housing stock that is affordable to households at or below 80% of the area’s median income. For Barnstable County, a single person earning 80% of the area median income could earn as much as $64,450 and a family of four up to $92,050.

How Brewster came to own 212 Yankee Drive

The original homeowner lived in the house for over 20 years and worked near Brewster. Eventually, that person had to move, leaving the house vacant at some point before the summer of 2017, according to the town.

A town resident aware of the deteriorating property alerted the town, which contacted the homeowner and learned that the court had assigned a guardian and a conservator to handle finances.

Property taxes were not paid in 2018 or 2019 and the town recorded a tax-taking on June 27, 2019. A MassHealth lien was also attached to the property.

In 2019, the conservator permitted town officials to inspect the house. With housing staff, the building commissioner toured the property and noted significant work was needed to bring it to livable condition and for the property to be sold with a mortgage.

But the house appeared to be OK structurally.

The conservator could not afford to fix the property or pay the taxes owed. Brewster town officials began to examine whether they could buy the house to preserve it as affordable.

The house was appraised, and the scope of rehabilitation work was examined. Demolition, cleaning and renovation work was estimated at $101,000 in September 2019.

The Affordable Housing Trust received a $500,000 Community Preservation Act grant in 2019 to preserve the house or other houses on the subsidized housing inventory. However, the town needed ownership of the property to proceed.

After conversations with the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, the conservator and legal counsel, town officials found tax-taking of the property to be the fastest way forward.

Brewster became the owner in May 2022 and then transferred the house to the Affordable Housing Trust. MassHealth forgave the lien, stipulating that the home remain subject to the affordable deed rider in perpetuity.

Rebuilding the house

A pipe had burst in the second-floor bathroom, filling the basement with water and spreading mold throughout the house. The homeowner’s court-appointed guardian removed all contents and had the house partially gutted to blunt the damage.

Once the town owned the house, the first step was mold and infestation remediation, including demolition, removing walls, insulation and flooring.

“We took the home down to the studs,” said Scalise.

A box of old Barbie dolls was discovered in the attic and returned to the guardian.

“The Barbies are really reflective of someone’s life. The person who lived here spent all that time collecting the Barbies and to me, that was a really personal thing. It was important to us that that collection of someone’s life was honored in some way,” said Kalanick.

New boiler, walls, flooring, appliances and more

Mashpee’s Pearl Company was contracted in August to complete the restoration and preservation of the home, finishing earlier this month. That work included a new boiler, new walls and flooring, fresh paint, new bathroom fixtures, granite counters, new kitchen cabinets and stainless steel appliances, as well as a new slider and storm door.

Repairs were also made to the septic system.

Scalise said different town departments joined forces to complete the project, pointing to how the Department of Public Works performed landscaping, cleaned the one-car garage, and power-washed the back deck.

Other companies that worked on the project include Green Environmental Inc. of Rockland, The Resource Inc. of South Yarmouth, and Housing Assistance Corporation.

How much did it cost?

The preservation, including payment of back taxes, insurance, legal and other fees, remediation, construction and work on the septic system, totaled approximately $380,000, said Scalise.

A combination of funds from the Brewster Community Preservation Act, Affordable Housing Trust and proceeds from the sale will be used to cover the cost of the house. Community Preservation funds can only be used for preservation work, so other money was needed to cover other costs, such as insurance.

The cost to preserve the house is greater than the sale price but still less than the per-unit cost to build new.

That "keeps it in perspective on why it's worth doing something like this," said Kalanick.

How to apply for the house

The house is being sold for $237,900 through an affordable lottery. The deadline to apply is 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 2.

The median year-to-date sale price for single-family houses in Brewster is $784,539, up 1.2% over last year, according to data from the Cape Cod & Islands Association of Realtors.

Applications are available at the Brewster Town Hall, Brewster Ladies Library and the Housing Assistance Corporation offices. Applications can be mailed or dropped off at 460 West Main St., Hyannis, or submitted through a Dropbox portal on haconcapecod.org/lotteries.

Eligible applicants can secure a loan for the property's purchase price and qualify as first-time homebuyers with a household income at or below 80% of the area median income of Barnstable County.

Scalise said the town chose to price the house so it would be affordable for a household making 70% of the area median income.

“We priced it a little lower to make sure that someone’s not cost-burdened,” she said.

After the application period, a lottery will be held to determine the homebuyer. Preference will be given to households that can fill up the three bedrooms.

Another three-bedroom affordable Brewster home at 11 Sean Circle is available for $240,100. Household income must be at or below 80% of the area median income. The deadline to apply for that house is Feb. 5.

Scalise said that the house went through foreclosure, and the state had a settlement agreement with the mortgage company to retain its affordability so it would not be lost in the process.

Visit haconcapecod.org for more information on how to apply for 11 Sean Circle.

Zane Razzaq writes about housing and real estate. Reach her at zrazzaq@capecodonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @zanerazz.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod housing lottery: Buyers can vie for this $237K Brewster home