Bangor creates committee to tackle affordable housing challenge
The city of Bangor has organized a committee to come up with possible solutions to the city’s lack of affordable housing.
“A lot of our housing challenges seem related to quality and short supply of housing that people consider to be affordable,” Planning and Development Director Tanya Emery told Bangor Daily News.
The committee is expected to convene Sept. 12 for the first of five meetings through October.
According to Maine State Housing Authority’s 2017 Housing Facts and Affordability Index, 47.6% of Bangor households were unable to afford the median home price of $150,000, and 58.5% were unable to afford an average two-bedroom rental, with utilities, of $828.
In December, Bangor Housing Authority was one of nine housing programs across Maine awarded a total of $449,554 through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Family Self-Sufficiency Program, designed to connect seniors and those with disabilities with resources.
The affordable housing crunch comes at a time when confidence in investment in Bangor is growing. Bangor's growth can be seen on a number of fronts — entertainment options like the Hollywood Casino and Racetrack, Cross Insurance Center and Waterfront Concert series; an influx of new restaurants and stores downtown; and the completion of phase one of the new waterfront headquarters of Bangor Savings Bank, Maine's second largest bank.
And J.B. Brown & Sons' recent purchase of a six-story Class A office building at 80 Exchange St., in Bangor, signals the Portland commercial real estate and asset management firm's confidence in the city as a growing market.
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