There is a housing crisis on Cape Cod. There is also a housing industry that profits from it — collecting tens of millions, paying its executives six figures, and lobbying for new taxes on you, all in the name of “affordability.”
Beacon Hill hands our towns density mandates they never asked for, overriding local control and the character of the communities we love. We stand for affordable home ownership decided by the people who live here — so the next generation can afford to build a life on Cape Cod, on our terms. But the mandates are only half the story. The other half is who cashes in.
“Beacon Hill is forcing Cape Cod towns to rezone for high-density housing — defying 400 years of local zoning authority.”
— Yarmouth Republican Town Committee
The grift wears a nonprofit’s face.
Meet the Housing Assistance Corporation — HAC — the Cape’s dominant housing nonprofit. “Nonprofit” does not mean small. According to its own IRS filings, HAC reported roughly $56.8 million in annual revenue, and its CEO, Alisa Magnotta, drew total compensation of about $284,000. That is a very comfortable living, built on a crisis that never seems to get solved.
Watch how it works on the ground. In South Dennis, HAC paid $4.3 million for a 57,000-square-foot former nursing home — and 82 elderly residents were relocated after the sale — then moved to pack in up to 79 families. When the Town of Dennis pushed back, HAC reached for the state’s Dover Amendment to override local zoning by claiming the shelter was “educational.” The town’s own planning board chairman wasn’t fooled:
“I find that the primary reason is not education here. It’s 100% housing.”
— Paul McCormick Jr., Dennis Planning Board chairman (Boston Herald, 2024)
Now they want a new tax on your home.
Here is where it comes full circle. The same organizations pushing hardest for the new county tax on home sales over $1 million — a “transfer fee” the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates advanced in 2026 — include HAC’s own chief legal officer, who calls it an answer to an “existential crisis.” Read that plainly: a nonprofit pulling in tens of millions wants the government to levy a new tax, and a slice of that money flows to the very housing-industrial complex doing the lobbying. You pay more; they grow larger; the crisis endures. That is not charity. That is a business model.
Follow the money.
- ~$56.8M — HAC’s reported annual revenue (IRS Form 990).
- ~$284,000 — reported total compensation for its CEO.
- $4.3M — what HAC paid for the South Dennis property; 82 elderly residents relocated.
- Up to 79 families — the density it sought, over the town’s objection, via the Dover Amendment.
- 0.5%–4% — the new tax the same interests want on the sale of your home over $1 million.
Where we stand
- Local control. Zoning and growth decided by residents and Town Meeting — not state mandates or state loopholes.
- Real affordability for working Cape Cod families and the next generation — not a permanent industry built on the crisis.
- Transparency and accountability for every nonprofit that takes public money and public trust.
- No new taxes on your home to feed the same machine that keeps the crisis going.
Sources: HAC IRS Form 990 via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (revenue & executive compensation); Boston Herald, May 2024 (South Dennis property, relocations, Dover Amendment, planning-board quote); Barnstable County & Cape & Islands / WCAI (2026 regional real-estate transfer fee and its backers). Figures are as reported in those filings and accounts.
