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| Happy Nearly December!
We hope you and yours enjoyed a happy and safe long weekend!
As you may know, we’ve extended the COVID-19 Rent Relief Program into December, meaning renters can now apply for help with October, November, and December rent. We’re grateful to Governor Janet Mills for an additional $6.2 million for the program; it will certainly help Mainers struggling to make ends meet. We’re also grateful to Maine’s Community Action Agencies as they continue to administer the program across Maine.
Maine’s Economic Recovery Committee released their final report last week, noting that housing is critical to Maine’s infrastructure, economic growth, and the sustainability of Maine’s workforce as we continue to fight COVID-19 and work toward the future. We look forward to working with our partners both in state government and across Maine to work toward creating and preserving more housing that Maine people can afford.
As we begin planning for a new year (as much as we can during a pandemic!), we’re reminded of how we couldn’t do this work without all of our spectacular partners across Maine. Thank you, as always, for what you do. We wish you and yours a lovely beginning to the holiday season!
The MaineHousing Team
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| | Community Solutions Grantees Making
a Difference
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Last week, we announced two grantees of our Community Solutions Grant: the City of Lewiston and the City of Sanford. Both municipalities have partnered with their local housing authorities to address their local housing needs in innovative ways.
The City of Lewiston will receive $75,000 to support their application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s $30+ million Choice Neighborhoods Initiative. The City of Sanford will receive $150,000 to rehabilitate tax foreclosed single family and two-family buildings.
As MaineHousing Director Daniel Brennan noted in the news release, “One of MaineHousing’s roles in expanding affordable housing development is to support local initiatives that have the potential to make a big impact in Maine communities. We are honored to fund this work and believe that both of these initiatives will help transform the lives of people in their communities.”
Lewiston and Sanford join the City of Biddeford and the City of Portland as recipients of the Community Solutions Grant program. You can learn more about the Community Solutions Grant here.
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| | New Lewiston Temporary Homeless Shelter
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For the second time this year, we are proudly partnering with Community Concepts, Inc. in Lewiston to provide shelter to those in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. The difference this time – the shelter will be at a hotel in Lewiston and provide 28 beds.
Community Concepts will operate the shelter and MaineHousing will provide full funding to support it.
Shawn Yardley, CEO of Community Concepts noted that the purpose of the shelter is to help people without housing and keep them safe and warm.
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| | HUD 2021 Annual Action Plan - Public Forum & Hearing
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MaineHousing and the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development invite you to attend a combined public forum/public hearing as we develop the HUD 2021 Annual Action Plan.
This plan will identify the annual goals, priorities, and objectives for using the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG), HOME Investment Partnership Program (HOME), the Housing Trust Fund (HTF), and the Emergency Solutions Grant Program (ESG). We look forward to your comments on how these funds should be allocated in 2021 and any other suggestions you have for MaineHousing and DECD.
Please use this link to register to join us on the afternoon of December 16th from 2 pm - 4 pm via video conference. Login information and an agenda will be shared with registrants prior to the meeting.
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| | Supportive & Affordable Housing Workgroup Begins December 4
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The Supportive and Affordable Housing Workgroup, which is part of the broader redesign of homeless services in Maine, is convening for the first time this week. The workgroup is charged with advising and working with Mainehousing and Community Supportive Housing on the creation of a 200 unit statewide supportive and affordable housing pipeline.
The homeless redesign initiative, which is spearheaded by Maine’s Statewide Homeless Council, will run through June of 2021 with the goal of strengthening the homeless response system in Maine to better serve individuals and families facing homelessness or housing instability. The Supportive & Affordable Housing Workgroup, as part of those efforts, includes developers, service providers, those with lived experience of homelessness, and state and municipal officials.
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| MaineHousing's Board of Commissioners will meet on December 15, 2020 at 9 am via teleconference. For more information about how to listen in on the meeting, please contact us.
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| MaineHousing Homeownership:
As of November 16, 2020:
Purchases: 834
The total value of the loans purchased so far in 2020 is $121,780,323.
There are 333 units in the pipeline at $47,898,618 in value.
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HEAP (as of 11/20/2020):
Total applications: 21,919
Pending: 10,879
Confirmed eligible: 9,345
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