In an effort to address the affordable housing crunch, the Maine State Housing Authority has awarded $23.5 million in Rural Affordable Rental Housing funding to build a combined 137 new rental apartment units across nine municipalities.
All housing constructed under the auspices of this program must be made affordable to those earning up to 80 percent of the area median income, its qualifying terms specify.
Funding under this program is intended to increase the availability of housing for both working and retiring or semi-retired Mainers in places where it is demonstrated to be scarce.
The $23.5 million allocation will be combined with $17.4 million worth of loans from the Maine State Housing Authority to complete the construction of these projects.
Over twenty entities submitted proposals under this program, seeking a total of about $50 million in subsidies, more than doubling the amount available in the funding pool.
According to a press release issued Thursday by the Maine State Housing Authority, this funding works to leverage millions more in “private, non-profit, and municipal support for local affordable housing.”
Since the program initial launch in 2022, 229 affordable rental units have been constructed in over a dozen cities and towns throughout the state.
Including the units set to be constructed a result of this most recent round of funding, the program will have facilitated the development of a total of 366 new affordable rental units in areas “that are not easily served by federal tax credit housing programs,” which the agency suggests are “typically used to generate subsidies in more urban areas for larger affordable housing developments.”
“Our rural communities offer an extraordinary quality of life that should be available to anyone in Maine,” said Gov. Janet Mills (D) in a statement Thursday.
“Since we created the Rural Affordable Rental Housing Program in 2022, it has created hundreds of affordable rental homes, helping to address the housing crunch and our workforce shortage by providing homes for working families,” Gov. Mills said. “I thank the Legislature for their support of this program which is making a real difference for Maine’s rural communities.”
Maine State Housing Authority Director Dan Brennan similarly praised the impact that this program has had on municipalities throughout the state.
“These new affordable homes, spurred by state subsidy that Governor Janet Mills and a bipartisan coalition of Maine lawmakers have backed, is one more step in the right direction as we continue our work to ease Maine’s affordable housing shortage,” said Director Brennan.
“The program has not only helped add housing where it is needed most, it is adding development capacity for all of Maine,” Brennan added. “This peripheral benefit cannot be understated as we move toward a future that will provide housing opportunities that allow more Mainers to live affordably in a community of their choice.”
Click Here to Read the Maine State Housing Authority’s Full Press Release
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