My family rents in Harpswell.
In February, while we were running errands, our dryer caught fire.
We returned to a home filled with thick smoke and called 911.
The fire department responded within minutes and contained the fire, which had been caused by faulty hardware.
The structure of our home survived, but smoke damage ruined 90% of our belongings — furniture, clothes, linens, our daughter’s toys and everything we had just purchased for our new baby. The house was uninhabitable, saturated with toxic smoke.
For two months, we moved between short-term rentals, coordinating with insurance, our landlord and contractors to repair the damage and replace what we had lost.
Then, just as we were preparing to return, our landlord — who lives out of state — told us we wouldn’t be moving back in. A local real estate agent had advised him he could rent the home for $2,500 to $3,000 a week as a short-term rental.
After months of disruption, we no longer had a home to return to.
Harpswell is where our daughter goes to school. It’s where our family and friends are. It’s our home. Like many families, we’ve been renting here while waiting to buy. Now, we can’t find a long-term rental. There is no inventory.
Meanwhile, short-term rentals comprise roughly 10% of the housing stock — around 400 homes no longer available to residents.
We are fortunate. We have the financial means to relocate if we have to. But that would likely mean leaving our community.
If this is happening to us, it’s happening to others.
This is not just a personal situation. It’s a policy failure. If Harpswell wants to remain a place where families can live — not just visit — it must cap and regulate short-term rentals before more of its community disappears.
Chadwick Jacobs, Bailey Island
