September
2007
Chebeague
Island Community Association fast tracks home purchase
In mid-June members
of the Chebeague Island Community Association (CICA)
were in the middle of their first affordable housing venture
- working to purchase a year-round home to lease to an income-eligible
island family - a complex process to say the least. They were
waiting for confirmation of CICA's
nonprofit status, hoping for approval from the Genesis Fund
for a $197,000 acquisition loan with $45,000 in grant awards
to support the pending purchase. If approved, the conditions
of the Islands Challenge Fund grant would require them to
raise $25,000 in matching funds. Many things needed to happen
by July 31 when the group's option to purchase a three-bedroom
village home was up.
Exactly eight weeks later, CICA, a newly certified 501(c)(3)
organization, was the recipient of a $20,000 grant from the
Island Institute's Affordable Coast Fund and a $25,000 grant
from the Genesis Fund-administered Islands Challenge Fund.
CICA members secured a commitment of $25,000 in pledges
from community residents to match grant funds and the Genesis
Fund acquisition loan was approved. Suddenly the way was clear
to purchase the three-bedroom, single family house in the
village center.
As of August 9th, CICA, a volunteer organization formed in
2005 to work toward secession from Cumberland now focused
on ensuring the viability of Chebeague as a year-round community,
was the proud owner of its first property. The group, according
to Beth Howe, chair of CICA's Housing Committee, is working
to establish tenant-eligibility guidelines and plans to rent
the home, beginning this fall, at an affordable price for
two years. After two years CICA will decide whether to keep
it as a rental unit or sell it to an income-eligible family.
As on many of Maine's offshore islands, Chebeague's middle-income
residents are often priced out of the homebuyer's market.
With the successful completion of their first project, the
people of Chebeague are off to a great start to work, home
by home, to fix the problem.
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