Maine is struggling to keep pace with the number of people seeking affordable housing.
Avesta Housing, Maine's largest affordable housing developer, says its waitlist grew by 26% last year, and by 46% over the last two years. Fewer than 4% of applicants were able to get into a newly built home or a spot in a unit that had recently turned over, according to Avesta.
Rebecca Hatfield, Avesta's president and CEO, said the non-profit has doubled the number of affordable housing units in its development pipeline over the last five years, but the needs are too large.
"We can't even keep pace with this," she said. "Right now we're in reactive mode, and it's growing much faster than we can respond."
And Laura Mitchell, executive director of the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition, said the situation has reached a "tipping point," and she expects it will get worse.
"Not only have we finished up the federal emergency rental assistance programming, which is going to make it worse over the next few months here, but as a state our population is aging. They're retiring, but they're staying in Maine or they are continuing to maintain homes in Maine. In order to just sustain our workforce and our economy, we need at least 5,000 new people a year to move into Maine."
The Bangor Housing Authority, for example, has a seven-year waitlist for affordable housing options for older Maines, Mitchell said.
Nearly 4,900 Maine and New Hampshire households were on Avesta's waitlist last year, and 43% of those applicants said they were unhoused.
A lack of funding, both Hatfield and Mitchell said, is the biggest hurdle holding Maine back from developing more housing, more quickly.
"Fundamentally, we need resources. That's the biggest barrier, and there's been encouraging movement to bring more housing resources to the table. But the cost of building is rising very quickly, and so we need more funding to come to the table."
