The city of Portland is creating a new task force to help address housing issues citywide, but despite its name Mayor Mark Dion said the goal is not to create socialized housing in the city.

The City Council voted on March 17 to pass a resolution “calling for the establishment of a task force on social housing.” Dion is now tasked with recommending appointees to the task force.

The resolution itself cited a study by the Furman Center at New York University defining social housing as “where public entities take an active role in development and ownership of income-restricted housing.”

According to the national nonprofit housing organization Alliance for Housing Justice, the concept involves housing built and owned by public entities rather than private companies or organizations. 

Dion said such a concept isn’t entirely unthinkable, given that the city already has a housing authority that does similar work.

Despite the reference to social housing, however, Dion insisted city-sponsored housing projects are not necessarily the goal.

“I don’t think we should be in the construction business,” he said. “I don’t think we should be long-term landlords.”

Dion said what he hopes the task force will do is help find ways to assist what he called the “missing middle,” or middle-income people who don’t qualify for subsidized housing but can’t afford market-rate property. 

“If we can create other incentives to address the true working people, the cops, the firefighters, that brand-new nurse, the CNA, the bartender and the waitress, I want to provide housing for them,” he said.

Dion said the city clerk will soon solicit applications to anyone wanting to join the task force. Dion said he hopes to see stakeholders such as developers, architects, and finance managers to get involved. 

Dion said he hopes the task force will bring new ideas to the table, which will lead to better housing opportunities for the middle class. Kelsi Hobbs, assistant professor of economics at the University of Maine, said the current housing deficit, both in Maine and nationwide, demands out-of-the-box thinking.

“I definitely think that we’re going to be seeing more calls to action, and definitely more investment in publicly-supported housing whether that’s through our existing programs or developing new ideas,” she said. 

Dion said the city needs to take action to help, as leaving the issue to the housing markets to solve isn’t working.

“I think we’re doing a very good job of creating low-income housing, the market seems to be taking care of ‘market’ demand, but what we’re missing is for the average working person and families, is those units in the middle,” he said.

Hobbs agreed that the free market alone cannot solve the city’s housing problems.

“Our markets haven’t been able to support people in the way that we hoped that it would, and so the government is kind of providing that safety net to be able to help,” she said. 

Dion said once the city clerk has solicited and collected applications, Dion expects to have a list to present to the council by mid-May.