A new housing project announced in Bath this month is indicative of the kind of housing local and state officials say is needed throughout the Midcoast. 

The Bath Housing Development Corporation announced on Sept. 9 that construction would begin early next year. The multi-family project, at 520 Centre St., will create 18 two-bedroom apartments.  

The apartments will be income restricted, meaning they will only be available to tenants who make 80% or less than the city’s area median income of $74,000. 

Debora Keller, executive director of the Bath Housing Authority, said housing for people making less than the local AMI is a growing need in the region. 

“There’s a real mismatch between what people are earning and what people can afford to pay for housing,” she said. 

Keller said rents for a two-bedroom apartment in Bath average more than $1,800. Between January of 2017 and August of 2023, Keller said, average rental rates in Bath have gone up as much as 95%. Incomes for renters, by contrast, have risen as little as an estimated 17% in the same time , she said. 

The number of projects catering to those making less than local AMI is growing in the Midcoast. MaineHousing, the quasi-public organization that serves as the state’s housing authority, funds projects geared toward renters who make 60% or less than a region’s AMI.  

Mark Wiesendanger, MaineHousing’s director of development, said MaineHousing funded or partially funded only one project in the area – in Freeport – in October 2020.  

In October 2021, he said, there were two MaineHousing-related projects in the works in Bath. In October 2022, there were three in Bath, and one in Brunswick. Today, he said, there are six in Brunswick, Topsham or Bath, as well as one each in neighboring Boothbay Harbor and Freeport.  

“I would say it’s a pretty active area for development right now,” he said. 

Wiesendanger noted MaineHousing has 85 such projects going on statewide, including the Midcoast region. Overall, he said, Bath and the Midcoast region’s housing needs reflect trends he is seeing statewide. 

“It does seem to have come to a head everywhere,” he said. 

New housing projects reflect efforts to address the growing need. In Brunswick, ongoing development work at Brunswick Landing on the former naval base property includes dozens of new apartments for asylum seekers built by Developers Collaborative. 

In Bath, Keller noted in particular another new downtown housing project, at the old YMCA building on the corner of Summer and Front Streets, produced by the Szanton Company.  

When finished, in early 2024, Keller said, the project will add at least 46 new apartments.  

“What’s encouraging is there are a number of projects in the works right now,” she said.