Proposed Portland affordable housing developments face key vote

Jul. 15—The Portland City Council will vote Monday night on whether to spend more than $1.5 million from the city's housing trust fund on two proposed developments to create a total of 134 new affordable housing units in Bayside and Woodfords Corner.

The majority of those units would be reserved for people earning at or below 50% of the area median income. Both proposals are scheduled to be voted on Monday after just one reading and public hearing before the council, instead of the standard two readings. In July and August, the council only meets once a month.

Greg Watson, the city's director of Housing and Economic Development, said both projects are important steps toward creating more housing in Portland.

"We have been in a housing crisis for a number of years, and we need housing of all types and all levels of affordability," Watson said. "It's really hard to build affordable housing, and it takes combining resources and leveraging opportunity as much as possible in order to make it work."

WOODFORD STREET

Community Housing of Maine, a nonprofit affordable housing developer, is planning to build 84 units dedicated to those 55 and older along Woodford Street near Woodfords Congregational Church.

The group is asking the city for $942,000 from the the Jill Duson Housing Trust Fund, a municipal fund set up to help finance affordable housing developments in the city, to pay for the work.

The project will be split into two phases, with the first including the partial demolition of the parish house building that is connected to the church.

The gymnasium attached to the back of the parish house would be removed, but the original structure would be preserved and converted into apartments. In place of the gym, a new four-story building with 41 units would go up, with 13 studios and 28 one-bedrooms.

Of those units, 16 would be reserved for households earning at or below 60% of the area median income — $61,200 for a two-person household. Another 25 units would be reserved for households earning at or below 50% of the area median income — $51,000. Four units would be set aside for people who have been experiencing homelessness.

The second phase is a similar four-story building on the adjacent lot with 43 one-bedroom units. The basement of the building would remain open to temporarily house groups affiliated with the church, like volunteers from Project Feed, a nonprofit that works with the church to provide free food to the hungry.

In addition to the money requested from the city's housing trust, the project would also rely on tax-increment financing for a total of $3.7 million over 30 years.

Tax-increment financing is a common funding source for affordable housing projects. Tax revenues from new development in specific parts of the city can be diverted back to developers or placed in special municipal development accounts to pay for projects outside of the city's regular budget.

Brian Kilgallen, a development officer with Community Housing of Maine said he is excited about the new project, which has been in the works since 2019, when Woodfords Congregational Church recached out to his organization asking if they'd be interested in buying some of their buildings.

"The new housing we're building is close to a lot of services that the folks we serve could access," said Kilgallen. "It's a walkable location. It's close to a bus line. There's already water and sewer, so there's less impact to the neighborhood and city resources. It's half a mile from a public library. There's drug stores. ... We're really excited about it."

The site already went through a zoning change to facilitate the project, which received unanimous support from the planning board and City Council. Kilgallen said the group has also engaged in neighborhood outreach in Woodfords Corner.

Should approval come through, construction is set to begin next spring.

"Really as early in 2025 as we can," Kilgallen said.

OXFORD STREET

The Portland Housing Development Corporation, the development arm of the city's housing authority, is also planning to remove several old public housing buildings in the East Bayside neighborhood to make way for a new nonprofit development with a mix of types of housing.

The project would demolish four existing buildings with 40 units on the lot between Cumberland Avenue, Oxford Street, Boyd Street and Mayo Street. One building on that lot was full of black mold this winter, which created hazardous living conditions for its occupants.

In their place, Portland Housing has proposed a six-story building with a total of 110 units. Of those new rentals, 55 would be mixed-income units, five would be market-rate units and 50 would be affordable rental units. There would be a mix of studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments.

Of the affordable units, 17 would be set aside for households earning at or below 60% of the area median income, and 33 would be reserved for those earning at or below 50% of the area median income.

The developers are asking the city for a total $650,000 from the housing fund and $1.5 million in tax-increment financing over a 30-year period to help finance the project.

The director of the Portland Housing Authority did not respond to questions about the timeline of the proposed development's construction.

COUNCIL SUPPORT

City Councilor Pious Ali, the chair of the Housing and Economic Development Committee, said he plans to support both proposed developments.

"Portland is currently facing a significant housing crisis that impacts all segments of our population," Ali wrote in an email. "The shortage of housing exceeds 50,000 units, making it imperative that we embrace any efforts aimed at increasing our housing stock. We welcome any and all initiatives that contribute to expanding housing availability in our city."

Another member of the committee, Councilor Regina Phillips, also said she will support the projects.

"Any housing is good housing," said Phillips. "We need affordable housing so I think we can work out whatever else we need to work out for financing. But I'd say I'm very supportive of both."

Councilor Kate Sykes, who also sits on the committee, said that she plans to support the development on Woodford Street, but she will be voting against Portland Housing Authority's proposed development on Oxford Street.

While she acknowledged that the city should be "greasing the skids for affordable housing," she doesn't like the financing approach Portland Housing has taken and wishes they would use housing bonds instead — a process Sykes said is much more efficient for a housing authority.

"We're doubling down a on a system that inefficiently produces housing, uses all kinds of tax money and is way less efficient than if the federal government were to give us money for public housing," Sykes said.

The council is scheduled to vote on two more affordable housing developments at the August meeting. One is a proposed housing-first development at the site of the old Oxford Street homeless shelter. The other, at 42 Atlantic Ave., would create 78 units of affordable housing.

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