Tyler Norod, Kevin Bunker, and Guy Gagnon spoke on the Biddeford affordable housing panel last week. Screenshot / Biddeford City Council meeting

The Biddeford City Council explored the future of affordable housing in Biddeford during a panel event on Feb. 11.

The primary panel focused on affordable housing, but other panels included topics on market rate housing, financing housing development, and a government and state perspective.

“Housing is one of the defining challenges of our time here as councilors and as leaders in the community,” Mayor Martin Grohman said. “I’d like to think Biddeford is doing as well as anybody, but we could certainly do better, and we’re looking for lots of ways to improve.”

Director of Planning and Development George Gervais began the evening by covering Biddeford’s housing statistics.

Currently, the City has 10,576 housing units, with 9,431 of those units being occupied, according to the 2020 United States Census.

The average monthly rent in Biddeford hovers anywhere from $1,700 to as much as $3,200 per month.

Gervais also said that there are currently 2,116 residential units to come in Biddeford, including projects currently being constructed and projects yet to come.

“That’s a pretty impressive number,” Gervais said.

Tyler Norod from Westbrook Development Corporation spoke on the affordable housing panel, along with Kevin Bunker from Developers Collaborative and Guy Gagnon from the Biddeford Housing Authority.

“There’s just not enough housing at any level,” Norod said.

One issue with affordable housing is that the land and infrastructure it is built on also needs to be affordable. Land with already-existing structures that generate income is not ideal, and infrastructure needs to be already available on the parcel.

“If you have to bring sewer or water from far away, that land can get out of price,” Norod said.

A block of 32 affordable housing units in Biddeford will be updated in the new year. Contributed / Bateman Partners

The City Council sometimes points developers in the direction of city owned or vacant land that might fit, Norod said. This is something that the city should continue to do to help developers create affordable housing, he said.

Kevin Bunker advised the council to stay away from putting all of their faith in the Maine Housing programs as a sole source of producing affordable housing.

“It’s not going to get us there,” Bunker said. “Maine Housing resources are limited. They’re limited in the amount of tax credit subsidy they can give away, and frankly, they’re limited by how fast they can process projects.”

Instead, in addition to using Maine Housing to create affordable housing, Biddeford should look at “small A” affordable housing.

This type of affordable housing doesn’t have major state subsidies, doesn’t run through Maine Housing, and doesn’t have major complex financing schemes.

“That is a way to expand the pool of affordable housing beyond the limits of what Maine Housing can do,” Bunker said.

Guy Gagnon said the city should focus on keeping its current residents in town. It’s frustrating for him to see his kids and his friends’ kids moving out of Biddeford because they can’t afford to live in the city anymore, Gagnon said.

“This is the place to be. This is the cool place to be,” Gagnon said. “That’s great, but it also brings problems.”

There is no point in developing the city if it isn’t going to take care of its own first, Gagnon said.

He advised the Council that the city should look into creating first-time homebuyer subdivisions, as many renters are able to afford a home, but cannot find one in the current real estate market.

Gagnon also said that Biddeford needs to look at the full spectrum of affordability, and offer a wider variety of housing, including apartments, small home subdivisions, and mobile home parks.

“It’s a crisis right now,” Gagnon said.

But housing availability comes from all sides. Brian Eng, co-founder and managing partner at Clay Cove Capital, said that even developing market rate housing is difficult.

“There is a demand for housing,” Eng said. “But the costs of creating new housing is a challenge right now.”

From a government perspective, Housing Opportunity Program Coordinator Ben Averill said the state has taken a heavy-handed approach to help with the housing crisis.

The state is hoping to create an additional 84,000 housing units by 2030, Averill said, with specific numbers based on county and region.

“In York County, Biddeford is already on track to do a lot of that,” Averill said.