The Portland City Council voted unanimously Monday night to help fund a new affordable housing development in North Deering.

The developers, Maine Cooperative Development Partners, bought three parcels of land at 165 Lambert St. in May 2022 and initially proposed building limited equity cooperative housing. But the group has since decided to turn at least some of those units into traditional affordable housing after partnering  with Preservation of Affordable Housing.

The limited equity cooperative housing unit model – also known as “co-op housing” – allows people to buy in to what is essentially a nonprofit comprised of the people who live in the building. There is a lower barrier to entry than for buying a house, but residents can still accrue equity.

This would be a new type of housing for Portland, but the model has been lauded in other cities as an innovative model to create more middle-income housing.

Liz Trice, a partner with MCDP, said she would have been happy to build co-op housing on all of the lots, which sit on both sides of Washington Avenue Extension between Lambert and Auburn streets, but the model for funding co-op housing is still new and can be more challenging

Trice said MCDP had planned to rely on a program through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which offers mortgage insurance for co-ops, but HUD only willing to offer insurance on one of the three parcels.

Trice said the group still plans to develop Lambert Woods South – the largest of the parcels with around 90 units – under the co-op model, but Lambert Woods North will become traditional affordable housing. A third parcel is being developed separately.

The council unanimously approved spending $1.5 million from the Jill C. Duson Housing Trust on Lambert Woods North, which will have 72 units.

INCREASING HOUSING OPPORTUNITIES

The council also approved several amendments to city code to comply with L.D. 2003, an act signed in to state law in April 2022 that aims to eliminate barriers to building more housing in the city. Among them is a measure to allow four housing units in places that are currently zoned for one.

The council heard extensive public comment in support of the amendments, with members of the public expressing a fervent desire for more, cheaper housing.

“All of my friends have moved out of Portland because they can’t afford it, they didn’t want to. They wanted to raise kids here and work here and live here. This ruins lives,” said Brenton Dupee, who urged the council to do anything possible to make it easier to build more housing.

“In my mind the housing market is so expensive right now we just have to throw everything we’ve got at it,” said Trice, with MCDP.

All of the amendments were approved in 8-1 votes, with only Mayor Mark Dion voting against.

STATE OF THE SCHOOLS

Earlier in the evening, Sarah Lentz, chair of the Portland school board, delivered the state of the schools address. She shared specific accomplishments of city students, talked about the appointment of new superintendent Ryan Scallon, and said six new student representatives from high schools throughout the city have joined the school board.

She also said the schools continue to struggle financially.

“This year’s is looking grim. Early estimates have us looking straight at a deficit of at least $10 million,” she said.

She chalked the deficit up to the loss of COVID-19 era federal funding, decreased state funding and increased mandatory costs.

The earlier public comment period was dominated by people urging the council to stop the encampment sweep planned for tomorrow at Harbor View Memorial Park.

Taylor Cray, advocacy supervisor at Preble Street, said that despite her organization’s involvement with the Encampment Crisis Response Team, its input was not taken into account when the decision was made to clear the camp.

“Community partners were disregarded and not privy to the decision-making process in this situation,” said Cray. She went on to emphasize the success the city and its partners have seen over the last few weeks in moving people from encampments into housing. But she said she worries the sweep will halt this progress.

“This sweep will absolutely be a disruption to the surge of good social work getting people sheltered and housed and will cause great harm to vulnerable people,” she said.

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