Portland officials are considering a new policy that would require some developers to set aside housing units for people struggling with homelessness.
On any given night in the city, hundreds of people are housed in temporary situations - whether at a homeless shelter for individuals, for families, or for people struggling with mental illness or substance abuse. At the same time, the city’s rental occupancy rates and prices are at daunting highs.
City officials say that’s a problem, and that it’s time to try some new approaches to help longtime shelter residents, in particular, move into permanent housing.
Under a proposal developed by city staff, housing developers who get financial assistance through the city — such as tax relief or a low-cost loan — would have to set aside 10 percent of the project’s units for people who’ve used the city’s temporary housing facilities.
“It’s targeting people who are staying in the city shelters,” says Mary Davis, the city’s director of housing and community development.
Davis says that in addition to the set-aside, the new policy would require the city to provide and coordinate a host of long-term services geared to help qualifying tenants maintain basic suitability for the housing, and work toward self-sufficiency.
“What we’re trying to do here is a partnership between the city and the developers,” Davis says. “As part of this policy the city is saying that we’re going to help, we’re going to work with you, we’re going to work with the clients to provide them with the support they need to be successful.”
Stakeholders in Portland’s housing sector agree that helping the chronically homeless find permanent homes is an important goal, and it’s one that has received new attention and investment in recent years. But Dana Totman, CEO of Avesta Housing, which operates more than 2,000 low-income housing units in the area, says the city should be ready to commit very substantial resources to help people who face great hurdles in life.
“Particularly folks that are homeless these days, the number of barriers and challenges that they often experience whether it’s a disability, alcoholism, a drug addiction, I think the challenges in their lives are very significant, and I think when they move into an apartment they need a pretty significant amount of support,” he says.
Totman notes that to qualify for some development assistance from the Maine State Housing Authority, developers like Avesta already must agree to give preference to homeless applicants for 20 percent of their units.
He says while the proposed Portland policy would address a slightly narrower population — only those who stay in the city’s shelters — it could also create burdensome new bureaucratic red tape.
The city council reviews the policy proposal this week. A vote could come by the end of the month.