(July 18, 2025) Today, we gathered with residents, partners, and supporters to celebrate the full occupancy of Wiggles Way, our 22-unit rental development built to serve the year-round community. Below are remarks our Executive Director, Anne Kuszpa, delivered during the event:

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for joining us to celebrate the completion of the Wiggles Way neighborhood. We’ve dreamed of this day for so long—and it’s finally here.

A warm welcome to the new residents! You are the heart of this community, and it’s incredibly gratifying to see you settling in and making this space your own.

Thank you to the Coffin family for their vision and dedication to creating community housing as a lasting legacy, and to our builder, Billy Cassidy, whose commitment to dignified, attainable housing has been with us every step of the way. Thank you to Will Stephens, who stepped in when we needed you most.

To the Affordable Housing Trust Fund—thank you for your belief in us and for providing the bulk of the funding. We did this together.

To Tobias Gildden and Rick Atherton, for envisioning the Neighborhood First Program, and 2019 Annual Town Meeting voters for approving it. This investment will yield returns for generations.

To our friends at Remain —thank you for your commitment to our work and environmental sustainability. This 120kW solar pergola system is the first of its kind on Nantucket. It generates enough electricity to power the entire site, reducing costs for our tenants while also reducing our carbon footprint. It’s innovative, impactful, and we’re thrilled to bring it online.

To the Land Bank—thank you for your partnership in creating this public park for the benefit of all. We’re so excited to merge affordable housing and open space in this new way. We hope it’s just the beginning of a long relationship.

To our donors—you are the backbone of our ability to build projects like this. Your support helps fill the gap between municipal funding and the actual cost of developing housing at a price point attainable for year-rounders. Thank you for believing in us.

To our small but mighty staff—Kylie, Charlyn, and Maria. It never ceases to amaze me how much we accomplish with our team of four. To our volunteer board and advisory council: your dedication and hard work make all of this possible.

Let this project be proof that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This is what happens when we all come together—and we’re just getting started. With 62 rental units now owned and managed across the island, Housing Nantucket has truly established itself as a nonprofit developer—and we’re already looking ahead to what’s next.

Before we wrap up, I hope you’ll join us at two upcoming events:

• Room for Us?, a new documentary film highlighting the island’s housing crisis through stories, premieres August 11th at the Dreamland.
• And our annual Benefit Event is August 15th at The Gaslight—come celebrate with us and help keep this work going.

Thank you all so much. Now let’s enjoy ourselves—we’ve earned it.

See more images from this feel good event on our Instagram account.

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