A controversial state spending law, criticism of local changes in two major cities, and new beginnings in both Portland and the Midcoast topped the stories this year related to Maine’s ongoing housing crisis. State-level data indicates single-family homes are less and less available and selling for higher and higher prices. Rental unit prices are also rising which, combined with economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, are leading to a growing number of homeless in the state.

Here’s what happened:

Housing bill passes

A new piece of legislation more than a year in the making got Gov. Janet Mills’s signature in April. The law established statewide housing production goals and granted municipalities permission to build more housing units, even where local laws prohibit it. The bill followed a year-long study of affordable housing needs statewide and may be regarded as a part of former House Speaker Ryan Fecteau’s legacy, as addressing housing issues was a longtime goal of his. 

“I must note that some folks here today are usually on the opposite side of political issues,” Fecteau said in the wake of the law’s passage. “But they are aligned on this issue because we all recognize the incredible need for housing in our state in order for our families, our economy and our workforce to prosper.”

Supporters said the law paved the way for local communities to produce more housing. Its provisions promoted the construction of accessory dwelling units, often referred to as in-law apartments, which many local municipalities either didn’t allow or restricted. 

The law also allowed municipalities to have higher-density development, permitting more units on a single residential lot, and the construction of apartment buildings with more units than some local authorities had allowed. 

Critics of the law argued that it challenged local control.

Portland breaks ground on new shelter

Portland city officials broke ground in March on a $25 million shelter and homeless services center on Riverside Street. The center will be a replacement for the city’s current emergency shelter on Oxford Street, which has 154 beds.

The center, which will provide 208 new beds, was seen as a major step forward toward addressing the needs of the city’s homeless. 

At the time of the groundbreaking, an estimated 1,200 people in Portland had no fixed address, including hundreds of asylum seekers emigrating to the U.S. Mayor Kate Snyder said at the groundbreaking that she hoped Portland could set an example that other communities would follow.

“I think it’s really, really important for every town and city to recognize that this is what Portland’s doing, and every town and city has the same obligation,” she said.

The new center is scheduled to open in the spring or early summer of 2023.

Workforce housing needs take center stage

Two stories this year focused on the need for workforce housing, loosely defined as housing with rents at well below local market rates to accommodate teachers, nurses, first responders and other essential workers who make less than the average median income in a particular community. Advocates argue that a lack of such housing is driving people — and their essential skills — away. 

The issue made headlines in August 2021 when the Island Nursing Home on Deer Isle had to close its doors after 40 years, as the home was unable to find enough workers who could live close enough.

In May, Megan Wood, board chair of Island Workforce Housing, a nonprofit created to combat the problem, broke ground on new duplexes designed to function as workforce housing on Deer Isle. 

Wood, at the time, said such housing was vital for holding the town together, along with the people she grew up with.

“What do you need to have a community? Housing. That’s at the forefront of our work,” she said.

Developments in 2020 meant to increase workforce housing in Portland, according to some critics, might be having the opposite effect. A local ordinance was put on the books in 2015 requiring market-rate developers to make sure that 10% of new apartments were made available at workforce housing rates. 

But a change to that rule, enacted as part of an omnibus citizens’ initiative that passed in 2020, upped that requirement to 25%, and market-rate developers have worried about future prospects in the city ever since. Two years later, the debate continues on what the long-term effects of the change really are in Portland.

While the change may have been meant to promote more workforce housing, notable local developers such as Jack Soley and Jonathan Culley told Spectrum News that they were not planning new development — including workforce housing — in Portland. The new rule, they said, made it next to impossible to convince banks, investors and other financial backers they need to get on board.

“Ground-up, for rents, new development is done in Portland,” Culley told Spectrum News in April. “The economics are not viable right now.”

Lewiston draws fire from homeless advocates for ordinance change

In Lewiston, the city council has taken criticism for a measure it voted on in December, that will take effect in April 2023, that essentially makes it illegal to sleep on public property overnight in the city. 

Proponents said that the rule was making it easier for police to interact with homeless people who were causing problems, but one homeless man, who identified himself as Randy, blasted the council for supporting the measure at a recent meeting.

“How could you sit there at the last meeting and vote ‘yes’ without thinking twice about us, the invisible people?” he said.

City officials passed a moratorium on building new homeless shelters earlier in the year, and have since extended it into 2023.