On January 19, Avesta Housing President & CEO Rebecca Hatfield served on a panel on affordable housing before Maine state legislators. Organized by the Maine Development Foundation at the University of New England in Portland, the forum provided an opportunity to talk about the state’s housing landscape and Avesta Housing’s work on this issue.

The Maine Legislature and the office of Gov. Janet Mills have made great strides in addressing the housing shortage over the past several years. For context, from 2008 to 2018, the State of Maine allocated a total of $65 million to affordable housing development. Since 2019, it has allocated almost $285 million, including $70 million in 2023 alone. It has also passed bipartisan legislation that addresses chronic homelessness, emergency housing, barriers to affordable housing development, and more. The impact of this cannot be understated.

But, as Hatfield pointed out, much more still needs to be done, as exemplified by a new study from the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies that reports a record number of renters in the United States are cost burdened. The shortage of safe, quality affordable housing is an incredibly complex, multifaceted problem that requires long-term investment and innovative solutions.