Housing
This section of the BDN aims to help readers understand Maine’s housing crisis, the volatile real estate market and the public policy behind them. Read more Housing coverage here.
A Knox County group plans to create homes for people who make too much to qualify for subsidized housing but can’t afford the region’s skyrocketing prices.
The Midcoast Regional Housing Trust announced on Monday that it gathered the $100,000 in donations needed to purchase property in Rockport on which the organization plans to build housing.
The money was raised through an 18-month campaign and came from private donors and businesses. The achievement, the organization said, proves people in the midcoast recognize more housing is needed to stabilize and grow local communities.
The nonprofit is also negotiating to buy a second property in Rockport to hold more new housing, according to Jonathan Goss, board president for the Midcoast Regional Housing Trust. The trust’s first housing project will sit on one of those sites and likely offer between six and 10 new units.
Goss declined to say where in Rockport the two properties are, but said the housing trust plans to release more information in the coming months.
It’s not yet certain whether those units will be duplexes, apartments or some other type of housing, but Goss said the design will match the surrounding area. The properties are also zoned to have high density housing, he said.
Once built, the homes will be available for households that earn between 80 and 150 percent of the area’s median income, which the Department of Housing and Urban Development sets annually. People in this income range can afford a down payment and monthly mortgage bills, but not at the current price of housing in Knox County, Goss said.
In Knox County, 80 percent area median income for one person is $56,000, or $64,000 for two people and $72,000 for a three-person household.
When people in this middle income bracket can’t find attainable housing, they’re forced to move away or prevented from settling in the community where they work. This drives out people who are often essential workers, such as teachers, postal carriers, construction workers or emergency medical personnel.
“These people make up the core of an economically vibrant community,” Goss said.
People in this income bracket, often called the “missing middle,” make too much to qualify for subsidized housing, but don’t earn enough to keep up with climbing property prices, especially in coastal and southern Maine.
The median cost of a home in Knox County now sits at $454,270, but in Rockport, the average home value is more than $624,000, according to Zillow. Property values in the region and statewide have skyrocketed since the pandemic due to high demand and limited inventory, and don’t appear to be slowing down.
“Our goal would be over the next 15 years to create roughly 200 units of missing middle housing,” Goss said. “It will be different shapes and forms that fit with the location where we’re building it.”
The future units will likely be a mix of rental and ownership properties and will be funded using both commercial funding and donations, Goss said.
Some 200 units would also chip away at the more than 2,000 homes Knox County needs by 2030 to compensate for projected population growth and current need due to underproduction, according to the 2023 Maine Housing Production Needs Study.
While housing of all kinds and for all income levels are needed in Maine, Scott Thistle, spokesperson for the Maine State Housing Authority, said Knox County, like the rest of the state, lacks “the affordable housing its residents need and deserve.”
“We are always encouraged when we see local organizations, like the Midcoast Regional Housing Trust, stepping up to help ease Maine’s housing affordability crisis,” Thistle said.
The Midcoast Regional Housing Trust plans to announce more information on its first housing development, including where exactly it will be built, in late September or early October, Goss said.
The organization aims to begin construction on the first housing development next year.
