The Portland City Council voted unanimously Monday to establish a new task force that will explore the creation of a social housing program in the city.
Social housing is a broad term for middle-income housing owned, operated and managed by the government. Rents are often below market rate, but the task force would be exploring housing that comes at a variety of price points.
Councilor Kate Sykes has been pushing for the creation of social housing since she ran for City Council in 2023.
The task force will consist of nine to 13 people appointed by Mayor Mark Dion with input from the rest of the council. At least two members will be required to have experience navigating the challenging housing environment in Portland and be “from underserved populations,” per a last-minute amendment by Councilor April Fournier.
The task force will identify potential funding sources for a social housing program, review the city’s legal authority to operate as a public housing developer, propose potential locations for new housing and assess ways to streamline the permitting and inspections process.
“We have a housing crisis in Portland and any housing model that will come our way I think we need to take it,” said Councilor Pious Ali, who was presiding over the meeting as mayor pro tempore because Dion was absent.
Councilor Wes Pelletier spoke in favor of the task force, and said it will have a lot of work to do.
“This is going to be a long process; I think that it is important to start doing the legwork now. This is not something that we can just pass overnight,” he said.
Portland Housing and Economic Development Director Greg Watson told the council that his department supports creating the task force. He said grant funding might be a way to pay for the panel’s work, which is expected to take about a year.
PUBLIC SUPPORT
About a half a dozen people spoke during the discussion, most expressing support for social housing.
“There is a lot of energy in Portland to do something about this housing crisis,” said Todd Morse. “But if we are to meet this need we need to scale up and go beyond our current housing production capacity.”
Winston Lumpkins wrote to the council ahead of the meeting to express support for the task force. He said he has lived and worked in the restaurant industry in Portland for decades.
“Portland is my home, and I do not have plans to leave, however, the incredible cost of homeownership, and the incredible cost of market rate rental housing puts that commitment in question,” wrote Lumpkins. “I no longer have the hope of buying a home within Portland that I had in 2019.”
He said affordable mixed-income housing is sorely needed in the city.
Charlotte Ruddy said that creating a task force like this should appeal to people on all sides of the aisle.
“At the height of a housing and homelessness emergency this is what people are talking about on both sides of the aisle, meeting housing needs,” said Ruddy.
SHELTER FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS
The council also unanimously approved having the city continue to operate the shelter for asylum seekers in Riverton.
When the shelter opened at 166 Riverside Industrial Parkway in November 2023, the plan was for it to be operated by the city for a year and a half before operations would be turned over to the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition.
The coalition is not in a financial position now to take on those operations, so the city will continue to run the shelter for the next year and a half. The coalition has been providing food at the shelter since it opened.
City Manager Danielle West said that under the new agreement the city would continue to operate the shelter and take over providing food for it. She said that the annual cost of shelter operations is $3.27 million, but about 70% of that is reimbursed by state general assistance funding. She noted that cost does not include meals, which would cost the city an additional $1.2 million per year. West said the city would have to work the cost of food at the shelter into next year’s budget.
Developer Kevin Bunker owns the shelter and leased the space to the city for three years. Once that contract is up at the end of 2026, it’s unclear what the shelter’s future will be.
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