ROCKLAND — “Two teachers moving here this year would together earn $86,000, but they probably won’t find any place to live, especially if we look at realistic housing cost,” said Jonathan Goss. “They can’t get assistance from existing organizations because there’s really no way to help them, at this point.”

According to Goss, president of a newly established housing trust called MidCoast Regional Housing Trust, not until that couple moves into the lower and mid-$90,000 household income that they can actually obtain housing in Rockland at the $1,500 or $1,800 a month rental fee.

While Midcoast Habitat For Humanity and Knox County Homeless Coalition work with families and individuals at the lowest rung of income, MCRHT aims to focus on the working families who are trapped in a demographic who able to earn, but not able to afford.

Rent is rising faster than home prices, and median income earned in Knox, Lincoln, and Waldo counties does not meet the needed income required for housing. Home prices for sale are increasing steadily, even though they are not keeping pace with the rent increases. Add to that, data from the Maine Department of Labor suggests that employers in Knox, Waldo, and Lincoln counties will need about 800 additional hires by 2028.

In 2020, Lincoln County already had a higher cost of housing, but in the last year, Knox and Lincoln have been catching up or going beyond. In one year, between 2020 and 2021, there’s been a significant increase in housing expenses in this area. 

Younger families are only just scraping by, and this is especially hard for them because they are not even close to being able to obtain that rental unit, let alone purchasing a home. While prices in the Midcoast are rising sharply, new construction has slowed to a crawl. Approximately 1/3 of the housing stock in this area has been converted to seasonal rentals or to vacation homes. In Rockland the median home price is now $285,000, which is up 14% from a year ago. For Knox County, the median home price is over $407,000. 

On Monday, Nov. 14, 2022, members of Rockland City Council will vote on a resolve to welcome and work with the 9-Board member housing trust.

“This will be a critical step in helping us identify prospective properties we might convert to permanently affordable housing for workforce families,” said Goss, during his presentation to Council, Nov. 7.

MCRHT will use tax credits, charitable donations and other resources to construct new housing or convert existing buildings, and then reserve them for working families. The housing will be permanently withdrawn from commercial markets. If one family moves out, the property must be sold or rented to another working household. The trust would acquire rental properties and keep rents low, or below market rates for qualified applicants. MCRHT might also sell homes, yet maintain ownership of the land and share a percentage of the increase in home value with the home owner. 

The goal is to allow renters to save money for future purchase of their own homes 

MCRHT hopes to begin its first project in 2023. 

Nine housing trusts already operate in Maine, including Kennebunkport, Freeport, North Haven, Deer Isles, Mount Desert, Orland, and other New England coastal towns. Three more are being organized, and each housing trust tailors itself to the area that they are in.

Find more information at https://mcrht.org/