“Between 2019 and 2023, I have moved six times,” said Dian Hamilton, who now lives in Provincetown. “I am 80 years old.” Some of her moves were within Provincetown. Some of those moves were to the town of Truro. Some were just winter rentals.
“You know, there are challenges,” she said. She fell down the stairs in one place in Truro, she said.
“I was very determined to get back to Provincetown. I very much missed the energy… Provincetown very much feeds my heart and soul,” she said. “I can’t imagine living anywhere else. I’m always smiling in Provincetown.”
For her most recent and successful move into a room in a house in Provincetown with a woman she already knew, she credits Dan McKeon, a professional photographer who lives in town.
“I can’t imagine living anywhere else.” – Dian Hamilton. PHOTO COURTESY OF DIAN HAMILTON
McKeon played matchmaker between the landlord and Hamilton, she said. “He is part of the reason why I am here,” she said.
McKeon, who is the administrator of the Facebook group page, “Ptown Residents Seeking Year-Round Housing,” introduced Hamilton to her current landlord and roommate.
“He saw the need and took on the responsibility of trying to match people up with homes,” she said. “He’s doing a wonderful service for us.”
MeKeon is “a seminal part of this community,” said Hamilton. “He’s our Provincetown photographer… He’s very much part of the fabric of Provincetown.”
“Ptown Residents Seeking Year-Round Housing,” a Facebook Group Page
Dan McKeon’s personal search for housing in Provincetown has gone through four rinse-and-repeat cycles that went something like this: Dream come true followed by a rude awakening about the realities for renters in town.
Since moving to Provincetown in 2009, he has lived in four places. And counting. He must move again by the end of October 2024. He is “determined to stay” in Provincetown, he said. “I’m not going anywhere,” said McKeon.
That, essentially, is the backstory to the popular Facebook group page, “Ptown Residents Seeking Year-Round Housing” that Mckeon started in 2015 when he began his second search for housing and discovered that he had many friends in the same position. The page has since evolved into also helping people find seasonal housing, he said.
“It’s a Provincetown-wide dilemma.” CAPE COD WAVE PHOTO
“Hey, let me know if you hear anything,” was the repeated request he had heard from friends in the same situation. “It’s a Provincetown-wide dilemma,” said McKeon.
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