Developers in Maine say labor shortages are slowing their progress in building affordable housing, and and they point to a lack of state elevator inspectors as one major issue.
Maine has two elevator inspectors. John Burpee, chief inspector for Maine's elevator and tramway safety program, said most inspections occur within two-to-three weeks of receiving a request.
There are 90 units in the pipeline that will eventually need an inspection, he said.
"It's actually a smaller number than we've had for the past two-to-three years," Burpee told members of the Legislature's Housing Committee on Tuesday. "I think that we're getting past the surge that we had, where we were definitely challenged with trying to meet all these inspections."
But Ben Brennan of KONE Elevators in Maine said the wait can be anywhere from three weeks to two months in recent years.
"The lack of predictability makes it really hard on affordable housing developers to meet dates tied to financing," he said.
There are more than 2,000 units in Maine's housing development pipeline. A recent study suggests Maine needs as many as 84,000 new homes over the next seven years to meet its housing demands.
State lawmakers say they're looking for ways to reduce the time it takes to develop affordable housing in Maine. They questioned whether Maine could prioritize elevator inspections for housing or other essential buildings and whether the state needs to find and hire more qualified inspectors.
