Affordable housing projects proposed off Portland’s Forest Avenue. Neighbors are wary.
An artist rendering of a housing proposal for a Portland neighborhood off Forest Avenue. (Courtesy of Invivid Architecture)
An empty parking lot just off Forest Avenue in Portland could soon be home to a dual affordable housing development for older adults and people exiting chronic homelessness.
Developers Collaborative is proposing two projects at 41 Ashmont St.: a 30-unit Home for Good project in concert with Catholic Charities Maine, and next door, a 33-unit building for low-income people age 55 and older.
“(This is) an opportunity to do some transformative work, particularly where it helps the most vulnerable in our communities,” said Amanda Bartlett, director of mission and community impact for Developers Collaborative.
But the two four- and five-story buildings may be a harder sell for neighbors who, at a community meeting Monday, expressed concerns about height, density, noise and parking on what’s already a congested street.
CONTINUING THE MISSION
MaineHousing’s Home for Good program, more commonly known as “housing first,” is intended to address chronic homelessness through stable, affordable housing with built-in onsite supportive services to help residents find employment or access help for substance use disorders and other mental health challenges.
The units would be reserved for people who are exiting homelessness and have extremely low incomes, meaning they make less than 30% of the area median income — for this project, that would be $27,300 for a single person.
The Home for Good program requires a development team of multiple agencies to separate property management from services management. Developers Collaborative would oversee the development and property management for the building, while Catholic Charities of Maine would own it and run the social services.
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Jeff Tiner, chief program officer for Catholic Charities Maine, said the agency’s foray into the Home for Good program was a natural one, as it serves “a very large swath of the population that this aims to provide housing for.”
Catholic Charities has more than 30 years of experience operating residential programs, he said, but this is its first experience with ground-up construction.
It is “a natural extension of the mission” it’s working toward, he said.
A REVITALIZED FOREST AVENUE
The other project will be reserved for people over the age of 55 who make up to 60% of AMI — $58,440 for a single person. Rent for a one-bedroom apartment would be limited to $1,565 a month.
Developers Collaborative would own and run that building.
The two buildings are designed to complement another Developers Collaborative project, the Rumery Lofts, which involved redeveloping a historic Forest Avenue building. Completed last year, that added 38 units of mostly higher-end market rate housing.
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Kevin Bunker, Developers Collaborative founder, purchased 501-533 Forest Ave. (plus 41 Ashmont) with the idea of creating a diverse mixed-income development and revitalizing the block, Bartlett said.
“Forest Avenue has the potential to be a great street someday,” Bunker said in 2024.
This is the next step of that vision.
RESIDENTS SEEK INFORMATION
But on Monday, neighbors were skeptical about the impact of 63 new apartments on their narrow street of mostly single-family homes.
One resident, while conceding that both types of housing are needed, said they could see the neighborhood absorbing one building or the other, but not both.
Multiple residents said they have had issues with the road not being wide enough in the past, prompting them to petition the city to only allow parking on one side. They said they suspect a number of seniors in the affordable housing building would have cars, and there likely wouldn’t be enough parking to go around.
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There was initially a misunderstanding that the 63 units would be in a single project, and residents said they wished they knew more about the Catholic Charities property prior to the meeting and, with it soaking up much of the discussion, some requested a second neighborhood meeting to allow ample time to discuss other issues that were only touched on Monday due to time constraints.
Bartlett said she hopes to have another community meeting before the projects go before the planning board July 28.
OTHER PROJECTS
The project mirrors another proposal from Avesta Housing and Preble Street that the planning board approved last month.
That project, at 1871 Forest Ave., is slated to add 33 Home for Good units at the site of the former Tortilla Flat restaurant. A second phase of the project will add a yet-to-be announced number of more traditional affordable housing units financed through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, according to Avesta Housing.
Despite often competing for the same pots of money, Tiner at Catholic Charities said the state’s affordable housing community — especially Avesta Housing and Preble Street, which have largely led the Home for Good effort in Maine — have been open about sharing what has and hasn’t worked.
“What drives this (for) all of these providers is moving this need and what is in the best interest of the communities we serve,” he said.
Bartlett said she’s working on two other Home for Good projects: The Riverlands, a 25-unit development in Augusta that will be run by Volunteers of America Northern New England; and 32 units in Auburn that will be owned by Auburn Housing Authority and staffed by Spurwink Services.
Staff writer Drew Johnson contributed to this report.
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Tagged: affordable housing, housing, Housing crisis, housing first, Maine housing, MaineHousing, portland maine
Hannah is the housing reporter at the Portland Press Herald, covering all aspects of Maine’s housing crisis - real estate and development, home ownership and rental issues and the lack of both affordability. More by Hannah LaClaire
