Gov. Janet Mills has signed a new law extending a tax credit that’s helped subsidize the construction of affordable housing.
The Maine Affordable Housing Tax Credit was supposed to expire in two years. Now the program will continue for at least the next decade.
Developers have used the tax credit to subsidize the construction of more than 800 income-restricted homes in the last six years.
“[For] developers in communities across the state that are looking to build and preserve housing, it gives them a predictable resource to be able to count on in the years going forward,” said Liza Fleming-Ives, the executive director of the non-profit Genesis Community Loan Fund.
The program has also been used to preserve more than 100 existing units of affordable housing, including 20 apartments for older residents of Washburn.
Town Manager Donna Turner said Washburn used tax credit funds to help purchase the property and make upgrades to the apartments.
“New windows, doors, siding, insulation, stuff like that to get them back up to where they should be,” she said.
Turner said the town was initially worried when the prior owner told her that he was ready to move on from the property.
“We just wanted to make sure that the management portion of it stayed local,” she said.
The Washburn property has a covenant that will keep the apartments affordable for the next 45 years, Fleming-Ives said. The Genesis Fund helped the town purchase the property and set up a non-profit development corporation to manage it.
“What happened in Washburn last week is exactly what the affordable housing tax credit was designed to do,” Fleming-Ives said. “It allowed the town to step in at a critical time to make sure that those homes were preserved and to keep them affordable — and to be able to invest in that property so that it will continue to be available to residents in Washburn for the long-term.”
Fleming Ives said there are more than 7,000 homes, or 300 properties, around Maine that risk losing affordability covenants as federal mortgages mature. Those mortgages through the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Section 515 program offer reduced rates to landlords and provide rental subsidies for tenants, keeping housing costs affordable for residents.
The Genesis Fund worked with local officials to preserve affordable apartments in Orono back in 2024, and Fleming-Ives said the non-profit is in various stages of preserving six more properties throughout the state.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
