MaineHousing Awards $24.5 Million In Rural Affordable Rental Housing For 137 New Rental Units

The Nine Proposals Funded By These State Subsidy Awards Will Bring Another 137 Affordable Homes To Rural Maine

AUGUSTA — MaineHousing is pleased to announce funding awards for the development of 137 new rental apartment units in nine Maine communities.

This $23.5 million in funding from the Rural Affordable Rental Housing Program will add rental housing that is kept affordable to tenants earning up to 80 percent of the area median income and will create new housing in locations where affordable rents for working and retiring or semi-retired Mainers are scarce.

The economic impact of this $23.5 million investment of state subsidy, combined with $17.4 million in loans from MaineHousing, will fund the creation of these new rental homes, and create approximately $44.6 million in economic activity for Maine, including dozens of local construction jobs.

"These new affordable homes, spurred by state subsidy that Governor Janet Mills and a bipartisan coalition of Maine lawmakers have backed, is one more step in the right direction as we continue our work to ease Maine's affordable housing shortage," said MaineHousing Director Dan Brennan.

More than 20 different entities offered proposals for the program, seeking more than $50 million in subsidy from a funding pool of about $24 million.

“Our rural communities offer an extraordinary quality of life that should be available to anyone in Maine,” said Governor Janet Mills. “Since we created the Rural Affordable Rental Housing Program in 2022, it has created hundreds of affordable rental homes, helping to address the housing crunch and our workforce shortage by providing homes for working families. I thank the Legislature for their support of this program which is making a real difference for Maine’s rural communities.” 

This state investment in affordable housing for rural Maine leverages millions more in private, non-profit, and municipal support for local affordable housing. It continues a historic era of affordable housing production for all parts of Maine.

Since its launch in 2022, the program has produced 229 new affordable rental homes in more than a dozen locations across Maine.

This latest round will add housing in nine more Maine communities, and when complete, it will have added a total of 366 new affordable homes to places in Maine that are not easily served by federal tax credit housing programs, which are typically used to generate subsidies in more urban areas for larger affordable housing developments.

Additionally, this program has helped bring new housing developers into Maine's housing ecosystem, adding to the state's development capacity, bolstering local economic outcomes, and improving the quality of life for hundreds of Maine people. 

"The program has not only helped add housing where it is needed most, it is adding development capacity for all of Maine," Brennan added. "This peripheral benefit cannot be understated as we move toward a future that will provide housing opportunities that allow more Mainers to live affordably in a community of their choice."

See table below for details: