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Housing Policies In Maine: A Historical Overview, Frank O’Hara
Housing Policies In Maine: A Historical Overview, Frank O’Hara
Maine Policy Review
Frank O’Hara traces the evolution of Maine’s housing policies from Maine’s settlement after the Revolutionary War to the current era, where concerns about sprawl and the preservation of communities have come to the fore. In doing so, O’Hara points out that the approach to housing has always reflected more than a desire to ensure every person has adequate shelter. Rather, it reflects core values and beliefs about society, our sense of beauty, and our relationship to the environment and one another. O’Hara urges policymakers to keep these broader constructs in mind when addressing Maine’s future housing needs. As history shows, …
Maine’S Future Housing Needs: An Mpr Interview With David Lakari, David Lakari
Maine’S Future Housing Needs: An Mpr Interview With David Lakari, David Lakari
Maine Policy Review
Since 1994, David Lakari has been director and chair of the Maine State Housing Authority. The Maine State Housing Authority is an independent state agency and a $1.5 billion financial institution. Its mission is to help Maine’s low- and moderate-income citizens obtain and maintain decent, safe, and affordable housing and services suitable to their needs. In this interview, Lakari focuses on his concerns for the future, in particular, the need to find suitable housing options for one of Maine’s fastest-growing demographic groups—the middle-income elderly. While Maine has been doing a good job of building the capacity to house its wealthy …
Ten Years Of Affordable Housing Policy: Is Maine Making Progress-- A Symposium, Elizabeth H. Mitchell, Dennis P. King, James B. Hatch, Jay Hardy
Ten Years Of Affordable Housing Policy: Is Maine Making Progress-- A Symposium, Elizabeth H. Mitchell, Dennis P. King, James B. Hatch, Jay Hardy
Maine Policy Review
In December 1987 Governor McKernan appointed a 30-member, statewide task force to address the issue of affordable housing in Maine. The task force was charged with investigating the quality and cost of affordable housing for lower- and middle-income families, and recommending a set of actions to improve the quality of existing housing as well as to increase the supply of housing. In September 1998 the Task Force issued a report that prescribed a number of local and regional—as well as private and public—solutions to the problem of affordable housing. More than ten years later Maine housing advocates note that the …
A Challenge For The Next Decade: Preserving Affordable Rental Housing, Laura Burns
A Challenge For The Next Decade: Preserving Affordable Rental Housing, Laura Burns
Maine Policy Review
Many of Maine’s low-income families and elderly residents have been able to secure affordable housing with help from a Section 8 certificate, which allows residents to pay no more than 30 percent of their income toward rent and ensures the federal government will make up the difference. Over the years, much of the development of Section 8 housing projects has been assisted by financial incentives and agreements between private and non-profit owners and the federal government. Yet recent changes in federal legislation remove many of these incentives and the agreements that go with them. As a result, some of Maine’s …
The Importance Of Moderately Priced Rental Housing To Continued Economic Growth (Or, Portland’S Rental Housing Plight), Erin Maclean
The Importance Of Moderately Priced Rental Housing To Continued Economic Growth (Or, Portland’S Rental Housing Plight), Erin Maclean
Maine Policy Review
Currently, the Greater Portland, Maine area is experiencing a significant shortage in both subsidized rental housing and moderately priced, market-rate rental housing. According to Erin MacLean, the problem is that even with heightened demand, historically low interest rates, and historically high rents, developers are finding that new, market-rate housing is too expensive to build in Portland. The lack of moderately priced housing has affected local business owners as well, who report they are finding it difficult to hire workers in the $8 to $15 range. Their efforts to recruit and retain workers place an upward pressure on wages, which can …