Proposed homeless housing measure to impact Portland housing developers
The city of Portland is proposing to require housing developers, who use certain tax increment financing, city-administered Community Development Block Grants, or federal Housing and Urban Development funds, to reserve 10% of units in new projects for users of homeless shelters, the Bangor Daily News reported.
The measure is being recommended less than six months after the city council approved an ordinance requiring housing developers — even those who aren’t accepting city money — building projects with more than 10 units to make at least 10% of those units qualify as “affordable housing.”
Mary Davis, director of the city’s Housing and Community Development division, told the BDN that “two or three” projects each year could be affected by the latest proposal, given recent development trends, and each project could create four or five units for the homeless.
Portland-based affordable housing provider Avesta Housing recently released its 2015 Affordable Housing Activity Report, which concludes that despite a 9% increase in providing affordable housing from 2014, there is growing discrepancy between the affordable housing that's available and the high demand in both southern Maine and New Hampshire.
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