Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Two Cape Cods: Hidden Poverty on the Cape and Islands - Part 9

Each spring, as vacationers arrive, struggling Cape Codders leave the low-rent summer homes they have occupied during the cold months and try to find affordable shelter elsewhere.

The seaside cottage Derek DeRosa lives in on East Sandwich Beach is about the size of a rich man's garden shed. In the summer, the shack would probably be described as quaint, but right now it's rather cold and cramped. Still, 19-year-old DeRosa loves this spot. He feels like a rich man living here. But as a light rain falls on his rear deck, DeRosa says he can only afford to rent this cottage for the winter. He'll miss standing here in the evenings and watching the sea water flow through the marshland.

Derek DeRosa: "Right now, it's probably about fifty to sixty yards, but given high tide, it comes right up to my back porch right here. It's really definitely a gorgeous place....It's not the best area to live on, but the view, it's priceless, this experience."

DeRosa gets the scenery and the uninsulated cottage at a bargain price for Cape Cod--seven hundred dollars a month. The catch is, come May, he'll have to move, and find something else. When the days get warm, summer people and vacationers will pay fourteen hundred dollars a month for this seaside spot. As a full-time worker for Stanley Steamer Carpet Cleaner, that's well more than DeRosa can afford. But renting here in winter saves him a few hundred bucks a month, while it also helps the owners cover costs.

Thirty-five years ago this Memorial Day, a small group of Cape Codders came here, to the Sagamore Bridge, to stop traffic and send a message to the arriving summer people. 'Your vacation rentals are occupied,' they said. 'Low income Cape Codders live there, and they have no place else to go.' Judy Barnet, now 78, was the group's leader that day.

Judy Barnet: "We arranged to fan out at the Cape end of the bridge, and make a big noise, and wave and stop cars, and hand them this brochure."

This display of civil disobedience became known as the March Across the Bridge, and it's become the stuff of legend among local housing advocates. If Cape Cod hides its problems beneath a blanket of beauty, this was the first public attempt to lift the sheet and force visitors to see what Cape life can really be like.

Judy Barnet: "This was paradise, and I had a friend that was very angry at me when he found out that I was working in this field, because he didn't want any mosquitos in his paradise. So, people didn't want to know, some of them didn't know, and some of them didn't want to know because they didn't want their consciouses hurt when they were relaxing in their summer home."

People still talk about the March Across the Bridge, not only because it was the first time the Cape's housing crises was exposed so publicly, but because the protest worked. Politicians in Boston made promises and sent specialists. Programs were launched and awareness was raised. That made Barnet feel good at the time, but today she says she feels only frustration.

Judy Barnet: "This is thirty-five years later, and its still happening. So, as much as we shook the rafters, it's still happening. And it's getting worse now. The community began to pay attention when it wasn't just poor people, when it wasn't just the middle class. And now it's hitting the economy. It's hitting the workforce."

Housing advocates say Barnet is right, it's still happening. The affordable housing market is still in crisis, but the once overwhelming problem of winter rentals appears to have largely taken care of itself. Thanks to increased housing costs, each year there are fewer and fewer affordable winter rentals. No one knows how many, because the winter rental population is not picked up by the census, and local realtors say low income people don't come to them because they often cannot pass a credit check.

Livia Davis is director of the individuals services department at the Housing Assistance Corporation She says that winter rentals always have been a bad thing for families, because they offer no stability. But for individuals, the loss of the rentals has left people little choice but to buddy up in motel rooms.

Livia Davis: "There may be an argument to be made that having some affordable winter rentals would be beneficial to the population I serve because they end up using motels instead. Because winter rentals, if they were affordable, you could argue, may be more affordable than the winter motel options that people are using."

Kevin Flanagan is the chairman of the Sandwich Housing Authority. His is part of a rising chorus of voices saying that the Cape housing crisis is coming to a climax. Businesses can't find local workers for service jobs. And in his town of Sandwich, prospective police officers and fire fighters cannot afford to live here and attend the training academies.

Kevin Flanagan: "We find that it's impacting particularly, the age group of twenty to thirty-five years of age. Here in Sandwich that's a dramatic problem because we are not able to get enough people to fill qualified positions with employers ... that need that rental basis."

Motels may have largely replaced vacation homes as the most affordable housing in the winter, but the problem of where low-income people are expected to live when the summer folks arrive and prices skyrocket remains.