In every community in Maine there are old buildings — maybe two, maybe three, maybe 20 — that catch your attention. You’ve probably walked passed these buildings and thought “what an eyesore, when are they going to tear that down?” But for tens of thousands of Mainers, that old building could be retrofitted, remodeled or rebuilt to be the affordable home they’ve been waiting years to find.
We have an affordable housing crisis in Maine: 35,000 renters pay more than half of their incomes toward housing costs; 2,500 federally subsidized homes in rural Maine are at risk of losing their affordability restrictions; and for every family living in an affordable unit, nearly three others are waiting for a home.
The need for more affordable housing in the state is clear, and yet we’re only producing about 250 new affordable units each year.
But the future doesn’t have to be grim. We can begin to address this mismatch of housing needs versus housing availability by creating the Maine Affordable Housing Tax Credit program.
This program would create over 1,000 additional affordable homes over four years, doubling Maine’s current rate of production. At the same time, the program would preserve some of the rural housing that will soon be at risk as federal support expires and will create jobs statewide in the construction, engineering and design sectors.
The program would also focus on communities that need housing most. At least 30 percent would be targeted for Maine’s aging residents and a minimum of 20 percent would be set aside for rural areas.
The idea is simple: individual or corporate taxpayers can choose to invest in affordable housing. Those taxpayers would then receive a refundable credit on their state income taxes. Credits would be capped at $20 million per year for the next four years.
The best part? This program would leverage an equal amount of federal low income housing tax credits — dollars that would not flow to Maine without the state resources proposed in the Maine Affordable Housing Tax Credit program.
We believe this program can make a huge difference in Maine. That’s why we’ve teamed up with a bipartisan group of legislators to propose this tax credit program through LD 1645, “An Act to Create Affordable Workforce and Senior Housing and Preserve Affordable Rural Housing.” The bill is currently being considered in Augusta.
This bill is not an entirely new practice or program. More than a dozen other states already have similar affordable housing tax credits, including Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut. We took cues from those states and followed their best practices in crafting this idea. We also took cues from our own successful Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit, structuring the Maine Affordable Housing Tax Credit in line with what worked for that program. And we didn’t craft this idea alone. We talked to the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition, contractors around the state, engineers, mayors and more to make sure we get this right.
Just think about all those “eyesore” buildings that could be put to use by this tax credit. Some apartments would be built from scratch with this funding, but others would result from restoring existing buildings, buildings like the Mildred M. Fox School in South Paris.
The Fox School has been part of the South Paris community for over 130 years, educating kindergarten to third grade students for most of that time, but in 2008 that school shut down. A private school came in for several years after that, but by 2016 the building’s time as a school ended entirely. It was sitting empty, gathering dust and not paying property taxes.
The town teamed up with Avesta Housing and MaineHousing to make a change. They converted the building to a tax-paying, quality, affordable home for 12 senior households. This is a model that works, and one that can be easily replicated across Maine communities if we create the needed structure.
Next time you see an old building, don’t think about tearing it down, think about turning it into an affordable home for your neighbors who need it most. If we do our job right at the State House, you’ll be able to help make that a reality through the Maine Affordable House Tax Credit.
Rep. Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, is the Assistant House Majority Leader and the lead sponsor of LD 1645. Sen. Matt Pouliot, R-Augusta, is the bill’s lead co-sponsor.