The housing shortage affects all of us. It burdens young families with high rents and mortgages. Employers struggle to attract and keep workers. It hurts our most vulnerable and leads to increased homelessness.

Barriers to building new homes are many. They include the underproduction of homes during the Great Recession and zoning rules intended to manage the pace of growth but have had the effect of limiting supply. Lack of supply means higher costs.

Greater Portland must add approximately 24,000 new housing units this decade to address historic underproduction and projected demand.

Between 2020 and 2023, the region averaged about 2,000 units permitted annually. We need to quicken the pace of housing production by about 400 units a year to meet our region’s housing goals. Preliminary 2023 data, however, shows a decline in the rate of new housing permits. Housing production is slowing down at a time when we need to be doing more.

Several cities and towns in our region, including Westbrook, Scarborough, Saco and Biddeford, are making significant progress. Recently, Portland approved zoning reforms that permit up to four units on all residential lots on the mainland and eliminate parking requirements for these developments. Some rural towns, including Casco and Bridgton, are investigating opportunities to create workforce housing on town-owned land.

Change is hard. Voters in some of our communities have voted down proposals for affordable housing, most recently in Cumberland.

While many Mainers love their communities just the way they are, blocking new housing will not freeze time in place. The demand for housing persists.

Single-family homes on large lots are permitted almost anywhere the soil is good enough for septic systems. Saying “no” to housing in existing neighborhoods means saying “yes” to new housing in woods, fields and farmlands that we value and cherish. It means more driving, more traffic, more greenhouse gas emissions and more sprawl.

Addressing the housing crisis is hard work. But we must keep moving forward.

In recent decades, much of the new housing has been big houses on 1-acre and 2-acre lots. This inefficient pattern consumes our remaining land and drives up the cost of delivering government services, such as road maintenance and busing kids to school.

Every community has different needs, and more housing in our region does not mean more housing everywhere.

Cities are great places to locate new housing because the infrastructure has already been built and paid for. But cities are not the only place. Suburban towns also have room for growth, particularly in those areas served by sewer systems, buses or trains and located near schools. In our most rural towns, the focus may be on small-scale development and preserving natural areas.

We can build great Maine neighborhoods like we used to before the introduction of suburban-style zoning. Think of Yarmouth village, Cumberland Center, downtown Westbrook, Gorham Little Falls-South Windham village, and some of the most desirable neighborhoods in Freeport, Portland and South Portland.

We’re fortunate in Maine that zoning rules are set by municipalities, giving local people the power to shape how their communities grow.

The Greater Portland Council of Governments stands ready to assist communities in figuring out how to welcome more housing in places that make sense for the people who need it, and in ways communities can embrace. Let’s come together, learn from one another and forge a path forward to make sure our region can thrive in the future.

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