The need for housing is truly universal – no matter who we are, where we’re from or how much money we have, we all need a safe, stable place to live. Adequate housing is a basic human need – and a basic human right, as the United Nations recognized in 1948.

But we all know we are far from that. From Fort Kent to Lubec to Kittery, Maine is in a housing crisis. Right now, more than a third of Maine renters spend more than a third of their income on housing and many spend more than half.

Meanwhile, the dream of home ownership seems more and more distant, with the average house price in Maine unaffordable to the average income household in all counties except Aroostook.

How did we get to the point where decent, stable, and affordable housing is out of reach for so many? Where people are forced to leave their communities, taking a toll on our families, our health, and our collective ability to enjoy what makes Maine great?

Most of it comes down to policies that treat housing as a commodity, not a right, and allow people to use housing primarily as a profit-driven investment.

This mindset erodes our ability to treat our homes first and foremost as places where we live, eat together and rest. Major developers and corporate landlords have been given free rein to squeeze every ounce of profit from renters. Zoning protects landowners’ property values instead of incentivizing the housing we need – and pits those who have housing against those who don’t.

If housing is a human right, everyone deserves it. But this is prevented by policies that prioritize the needs of landlords over those of tenants.

Those policies allow landlords to discriminate against people whose tenancy they perceive as “risky.”

This can include people who can’t afford to pay today’s high market rents (or the high cost of simply applying); who have illnesses, disabilities, or substance use disorder; who are currently experiencing homelessness, or who have been evicted in the past.

It can also include people who have been convicted of a felony; who have credit scores a biased algorithm says aren’t “good”; who are Black or brown; single parents and families; and people who don’t speak English fluently.

Our current policies also allow landlords to raise tenants’ rents precipitously, charge surprise fees, or evict them from their homes without reason or notice. And they allow landlords to avoid accountability by remaining anonymous and sometimes virtually untraceable.

Most of us agree: Everyone should have access to housing. To make this happen, we need to work together to enable Mainers to find decent, stable and affordable housing as we invest in the future.

We need to protect Mainers in a housing market that’s stacked against them.

How? By treating people experiencing homelessness and people with substance use disorder with respect and dignity, and helping them find stable housing first, with supports instead of barriers; by ensuring that people seeking rental housing don’t face random fees, huge rent increases, or discriminatory rules that keep them out; by protecting tenants from last-minute rent hikes or evictions; and by recognizing tenants’ right to know who owns their home.

We need to invest in our state’s future by making new housing easier to build and committing the state to building permanently affordable housing at scale.

And we need to start thinking about housing as a human right, not just an investment. That means changing the model for landlords big and small, and making sure everyone has the financial, behavioral and other support they need for housing stability.

As the Legislature debates bills to protect tenants, invest in Maine’s future, and enshrine housing as a human right in this state, let’s remember that everyone deserves a home – and let’s work together to make that happen.

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