Harpswell’s Housing Committee has begun to explore both near- and longer-term solutions to the town’s housing shortage. Its first meetings have focused on how to boost housing options such as home sharing and accessory dwelling units, and exploring the creation of a housing trust or similar entity that could build or manage housing.
“One of the best things about Maine and Harpswell is the sense of care and responsibility shared between neighbors,” committee Chair Sean Ruel said.
Ruel told the Anchor that committee members have heard countless stories of Harpswellians struggling to find housing for themselves or their families, or to stay in the place where they have always lived.
“The people who make the town work need to be able to live in town,” he said.
The Select Board has directed the committee to help increase housing opportunities in Harpswell. That includes furthering the work of its predecessor, the Affordable Housing Working Group, which presented its report in July.
For now, Ruel said, “We’re still getting our feet under us.”
The committee is still working on a definition of attainable housing. It is using that language because state and legal definitions of “affordable housing” set income thresholds too low for Harpswell to meet, according to committee members.
Home sharing and accessory dwelling units — secondary residences such as apartments or small, stand-alone houses on the property of an existing house — are readily available solutions to Harpswell’s housing shortage.
Both are legal in Harpswell. The committee wants to raise awareness of these options and enable interested homeowners. For instance, it could create a guide to the process of building an accessory dwelling.
The committee also sees a need for a new housing organization in Harpswell, although it is continuing to explore what type of organization would work best.
On Jan. 13, the committee met with John Hodge, executive director of the Brunswick-Topsham Housing Authority. Hodge emphasized the need for a permanent housing-focused organization, rather than a volunteer-run effort.
Hodge said the organization could be a nonprofit or a quasi-governmental group such as a housing authority, whose board would be appointed by the Select Board but would operate independently. The Brunswick-Topsham Housing Authority administers housing subsidies in Harpswell and developed the Hamilton Place project on Harpswell Neck.
Ruel said the lack of such an organization could result in missed opportunities to create or sustain housing in town.
For instance, a North Carolina-based organization called the Bible Broadcasting Network owns a property on Bailey Island that includes a house and an apartment. The network has been talking to town officials about selling the property, but Ruel said neither the town nor any existing nonprofit would be willing to buy it and manage it as housing.
The upcoming Town Meeting vote on the comprehensive plan is also on the committee’s radar. One part of the committee’s mission from the Select Board would be helping to draft new land use ordinances in line with the plan’s recommendations. But Ruel said that regardless of that vote’s outcome, Harpswell clearly has a lack of attainable housing, and the committee has a mandate to address it.
