Regional Issues
Affordable Housing

News on Affordable Housing (In the order I posted them)

• 10/08/05 VillageSoup - Guest Columns News - VillageSoup
  The crush of development in the Midcoast is so great that builders are even eyeing old cement grain silos for luxury housing. It sounds like a joke, but when it comes to plans for Passamaquoddy Towers in Rockland, the tribe and a private company aren't laughing.

• 8/16/05 Cumberland in quandary over 'affordable' housing
  Town leaders in Cumberland liked the idea: They would grant a local man a special zoning change so he could convert an old barn in the town center into apartments, and he would keep the rent affordable, giving preference to town employees like teachers and police officers.

• 8/16/05 Many factors make affordable housing elusive
  SOMERVILLE -- Cheryl Isbister hasn't had much luck finding an affordable place to rent.  She's been searching for the past few weeks, ever since her landlord decided to sell the house she's been living in.

  8/16/05 Plum Creek Plan carefully balanced - Bangornews.com Staff
  The Plum Creek Plan for our land in the Moosehead Lake region has been getting a lot of attention lately. Despite recent events, we continue to believe that most people are willing to engage in constructive dialogue about the merits of our plan. The Land Use Regulation Commission's upcoming scoping sessions should afford all of us that opportunity.

• 8/16/05 Suburbs look to serve seniors
  STANDISH — After 30 years, Betty Edwards has become accustomed to her life in Standish: the friends she greets on a daily basis, the stores that have everything she needs, the beauty and quiet of being on Sebago Lake.

• 8/14/05 Extreme makeover begins at old MYC
  SOUTH PORTLAND — Portland has the Eastern and Western promenades. But its neighbor across the Fore River may have an answer to these well-known spots. Call it the Southern Promenade, a nickname developer Richard Berman gave to what construction crews are building at the former Maine Youth Center in South Portland.

• 1/13/05 Senate confirms McCormick nominated for top housing post

• 1/11/05 Saving the Waterworks - Bangornews.com Staff
  Over the years, many plans - a restaurant, condominiums, medical offices - have been proposed for Bangor's dilapidated waterworks. Given the high cost of refurbishing the historic structures, anyone who needed to make money on the project soon gave up. A current proposal to build 35 efficiency apartments for low-income residents is different, and has a higher chance of success, because it does not need to turn a profit. Instead, it will help fill a societal need.

• 1/11/04 Midcoast group assists towns in comprehensive plan process - Bangornews.com Staff
  BELFAST - The Friends of Midcoast Maine has invited local planning board members and comprehensive plan committee members and interested residents from towns in Knox and Waldo counties to a planning information session at the Boathouse at Steamboat Landing. The meeting will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 19. The ongoing program is offered free of charge, and refreshments will be provided.

• 12/26/04 'There should've been a place for him'
  This one is for Tom, thought Jesse Arbour, as he struck a match in the night chill and lit a white candle.

• 12/26/04 Other towns can help Portland create homes for the homeless
  The city's director of homeless services, Gerald Cayer, said local efforts should be re-evaluated to be sure they are as effective as possible. City Councilor Peter O'Donnell, however, noted that neighboring communities also have a responsibility to the homeless that could best be expressed by providing more affordable housing.

• 12/9/04 For sale or rent? Waldo County's housing
  WALDO COUNTY (Dec 9, 2004): A bag of garbage sits on top of an old school bus parked next to a house trailer that had seen better days back in the 1970s. A chained dog barks at an unfamiliar car, but a half-inch of new snow covers most of the ugly edges and makes abandoned cars in the trailer park look cleaner and less worn; frosty temperatures put sewage and garbage smells into deep freeze. Some trailers are substandard and look it. Others look fine, but lack working furnaces or plumbing or are firetraps with faulty wiring.

• 12/9/04 Maine Awarded Funds for Affordable Housing

• 12/6/04 Grant may help plan for future of BNAS
  BRUNSWICK — This town is not taking any chances when it comes to the possibility of losing its largest employer. Town officials have applied for a federal grant that would give Brunswick the resources it needs to prepare for the possible closure of the Brunswick Naval Air Station.

• 12/06/04 Sprawl fighters gather
  AUGUSTA -- The second annual GrowSmart Maine summit held at the Augusta Civic Center on Friday was an important step in maintaining the momentum of a statewide movement to stop sprawl.

• 11/1/04 Housing aid cuts decried
  Plans by the Bush administration to sharply reduce housing aid will hit low-income Mainers hard, according to state and local housing officials.

• 10/5/04 In-migration fuels affordable housing squeeze in Maine
  AUGUSTA, Maine — More people are moving to Maine than out have made affordable housing scarce and squeezed development into rural communities, according to two speakers at a state conference on affordable housing.

•  Better communication pledged in affordable housing effort
  CAMDEN (July 13, 2004): Stressing that they don't oppose the affordable housing effort, several neighbors of a proposed Cobb Road development told the Camden Affordable Housing Committee they want attention paid to the design and scale of the project.

• 7/6/04 Gardiner seeks panel volunteers
  GARDINER -- Officials are seeking volunteers to serve on the city's Housing Committee.
  The committee has begun to implement a housing action plan in an effort to address the city's greatest housing needs. The long-range plan has a strong emphasis on revitalizing neighborhoods, developing more affordable housing, resolving landlord-tenant issues, addressing municipal service needs and forming a City Housing Authority, according to Shirar A. Wilder, community development associate for the city.

• 7/6/04 Zoning may promote affordable housing
  BRUNSWICK — The Planning Board may change zoning regulations to make it easier and more attractive for developers to build affordable housing in town.

• 7/5/074 Working Waterfront Endangered Species
  State Representative Leila Percy, who represents Phippsburg, Georgetown, Arrowsic and Harpswell, urged people to "talk to your selectmen about affordable housing."

• 3/5/04 News Release in Maine
  HUD AWARDS HOUSING ASSISTANCE GRANT TO VOLUNTEERS OF AMERICA TO HELP VERY LOW INCOME PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
  Volunteers of America praised for its commitment to high-quality affordable housing

• 8/6/03 Panel examines affordable-housing crisis

• 5/14/03 Affordable rents critically scarce, towns told

• 6/3/04 Low-cost housing strategy changes
  The Bath-Brunswick Habitat for Humanity will break with tradition this week when it starts to develop a Bowdoinham subdivision.

• 5/12/04 Banding together, pulling apart

• 5/6/04 Government News - Get in the thick of it Rockland Village Soup
  Affordable housing takes two steps forward

• Community News - Get in the thick of it Rockland Village Soup
  Rockland affordable housing gets federal boost

• 4/13/04 Deer Ridge Sold
  CEI Housing, a division of Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI) purchased the 27-unit complex off Federal Street in Wiscasset in January, according to housing developer John Egan.
  "We bought the property to make sure it would continue as affordable housing," Egan said this week.

• 4/13/04 Town begins mapping out its plans for island parcel
  Land sold to Cumberland at below value will be used for access to water and for affordable housing. It also involved the land trust.

• 4/6/04 Boston.com - News - Local - State population is going gray
  There were 6,400 fewer children ages 5 to 13 in 2003 than in 2000, a 3.9 percent drop compared with a less than 1 percent drop nationwide. By comparison, Vermont saw a 9.6 percent drop in children ages 5 to 13 in 2003, Maine a 7.5 percent drop, Connecticut a 1.8 percent drop, Massachusetts a 3.6 percent drop, and Rhode Island a 3.2 percent drop, Duffy said.