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ABOUT US:
Coalition
for Coastal Workforce Housing brings message to the State
House March 2007 As one of the founding organizations of the Coalition for Coastal Workforce Housing, the Genesis Fund participated in an event in the Hall of Flags at the State House on February 27. (At right: As Rep. Ted Koffman of Mount Desert Island speaks to those assembled at the State House, Rep. John McKane, Newcastle; Rep. Hannah Pingree, North Haven; Doug Boynton, Monhegan; and Roger Berle of Cliff Island and the Island Coalition; look on.) The event was set up to call attention to the more than 50 bills submitted in this legislative session regarding affordable housing. A dozen housing organizations, including the Genesis Fund, displayed materials in the Hall, and speakers included Majority Leader Hannah Pingree , Rep. Ted Koffman , Rep. Jon McKane, Chris Wolff of the Island Institute, and Doug Boynton, president of Monhegan Island Sustainable Community Association (MISCA). The Coalition for Coastal Workforce Housing, co-chaired by Genesis Fund Associate Director Liza Fleming-Ives, has worked with Majority Leader Pingree to submit three bills this session: (1) creating a local option real estate transfer tax - a 1% tax on properties sold for more than $500,000 that would become available to local towns to support housing for lower to middle income Maine residents, read bill text here, (2) increasing the Homestead Exemption for Maine residents from $13,000 to $20,000, and (3) amending the Property Tax and Rent Refund Program to increase the maximum benefit and expand eligibility. Much of the proposed legislation is based on the notion that local communities best understand the challenges and obstacles faced in maintaining stable and sufficient affordable housing. Some parts of the state face more challenges than others. This is the case in many of our coastal, island and lakefront municipalities: their high Area Median Income status limits their ability to secure government grants to support affordable housing for moderate income families. The lack of affordable housing in coastal communities like Camden and the towns of Mount Desert Island often forces men and women to make long commutes from towns where they can afford to live and where their children go to school to towns where they work -- and often grew up. The Town of Camden , for example, was recently shut out of the Community Development Block Grant program because it was deemed too rich. However, affordable housing for local working families rental or owned is extremely limited in that community. For island communities the problem is worse. Increasingly high property values preclude fishing families from buying a home. And on an island, where families can't move inland to find less expensive housing, the precarious balance of the year-round community shifts every time another young family moves to the mainland. Not only are island communities considered too rich, but granting agencies find the scope too small for consideration. However, as Monhegan lobsterman Doug Boynton said at the State House gathering, Six year-round affordable homes on Monhegan can make a big difference in the future of our island community. Homeownership for low- to medium-income families, especially in areas with an abundance of ocean or lake shorefront, is alarmingly vulnerable. Let's use Lincoln County as an example. According to 2005 homeownership data provided by MaineHousing, there are just over 15,000 (15,139) households in Lincoln County , a county with a large proportion of both lakefront and oceanfront real estate. Of those households, based on their income, almost 12,000 (11,964) are unable to afford a median priced home. That means 79 percent of the families in Lincoln County can't afford to purchase a home in the region where they work and were raised. The same is true for many of the other coastal counties. Indeed in only three counties Aroostook, Piscataquis, and Somerset do the median incomes exceed the income needed to purchase a median priced home in that county. (MaineHousing homeownership data for all Maine counties.) The U.S. Census Bureau sets the percentage of households below the poverty threshold at 10.7 percent in Maine . (2003) When you are talking about 79 percent of households locked out of the housing market in a coastal, island, or lake-rich community, you are talking about moderate income people for whom the American dream of homeownership remains a dream. Mainers' access to stable, affordable housing is an issue not limited to islands and coastal communities. If we remove the eight coastal counties from the equation, we still have 52 percent of Mainers in the eight inland counties unable to afford a median price home. When more than 50 percent of Maine families find homeownership out of reach, the problem requires the dedicated collaboration and partnership of as many groups, private and public, as can be assembled. The Coalition for Coastal Workforce Housing is a good example of how such partnerships can become a force for advocacy and change.
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