As we close out 2024 and look ahead to 2025, MAHC wants to thank you for your support that has helped change policy and increase investments to build more affordable housing in Maine than what has been accomplished in decades. We are steadfast in continuing to build bipartisan and universal support for housing as the foundation for health and economic wellbeing in Maine. Our work together has demonstrated that housing is the common ground across all Maine people, and its elected leaders. We all have people we need, rely on or love that need a place to call home. Together, we can and will meet Maine's housing needs. MAHC will be at work every day to make that happen. Thank you for being a MAHC member, or make a New Years Resolution to join MAHC in 2025 here.
Federal Government Shut Down Impact on Affordable Housing
With a Federal Government shut down looking more likely before the midnight, Friday, December 20th deadline, a few considerations for the affordable housing industry. The impacts will be greatest for multifamily affordable housing in the form of delays in government housing programs and rental payments. If you have pending HUD contracts, approvals, and such it is possible you will not be able to reach your HUD contacts beginning Saturday morning. We don't know how long this might last.
HUD Contingency Plans - From Leading Age: As Congress navigates a looming funding deadline for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other federal agencies, the country’s federally assisted affordable housing communities face the potential of a government shutdown impacting rental assistance payments and more. A shutdown of any length is detrimental to HUD-assisted housing because approvals for funding and action on programmatic administration can be delayed; a full recovery from operational disruptions may take months. HUD last updated its shutdown contingency plan in 2023, called the HUD Contingency Plan for Possible Lapse in Appropriations 2023. Full story here: https://leadingage.org/shutdown-hud-contingency-plans/
US proposes waiver on ‘Build America, Buy America’ solar module policy for federal procurement
A group of US government departments have proposed a waiver on the requirements to purchase US-made solar modules for government deployments. The Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Department of Agriculture (DOA) have proposed a temporary unavailability waiver for the Build America, Buy America (BABA) act, which set a preference for domestic content in government procurements since its introduction in 2021. According to a listing on the government’s Made In America website, market research for the waiver “Concluded that BABA-compliant modules will not likely be available from domestic manufacturers in sufficient quantities for federal financial assistance projects in the near term.” A statement from the Department of Agriculture forecast that there would not be a sufficient supply of BABA-compliant products until at least December 2025. The waiver would be in place until 31st December 2025. More
Renters' Affordability Challenges Worsened Last Year
The number of cost-burdened renter households hit yet another record high last year, according to the most recent data from the American Community Survey. In a new research brief, my co-authors and I update the data in our America’s Rental Housing 2024 report to highlight the current affordability challenges US renters face. We find that affordability has worsened across several dimensions, affecting more households up and down the income scale and leaving the lowest-income households with less left over than ever before. More
MAHC Member News: The Caleb Group Announces New Executive Director
Shawn Smitley will be joining The Caleb Group as the new Executive Director, effective January 6, 2025. Shawn is a CPA who brings over two decades of leadership experience in affordable housing and a proven commitment to fostering vibrant, resident-centered communities. He most recently served as Regional Vice President for Mercy Housing Management Group, a division of Mercy Housing, a nationally recognized nonprofit affordable housing organization, where he oversaw a portfolio of over 3,000 affordable and mixed-income housing units across 40 communities in five states. Prior to that, Shawn served as Controller and Vice President at Mercy Housing, where he managed property operations and development accounting, implementing policies and systems to improve financial management and strategic planning. Earlier in his career, he worked for CohnReznick, where he provided audit and attestation services for nonprofit affordable housing providers, deepening his expertise in the financial and operational complexities of the sector.
Why Private Developers Are Rejecting Government Money for Affordable Housing
LOS ANGELES—State and local governments in California have committed tens of billions of dollars to build more affordable housing. A new complex for some of the neediest low-income people doesn’t use any of it. By forgoing government assistance and the many regulations and requirements that come with it, SDS Capital Group said the 49-unit apartment building it is financing in South Los Angeles will cost about $291,000 a unit to build. More
MAHC Member News: Developers Collaborative Opening Housing Belfast
Congress Square Commons is an affordable housing project on the former site of Belfast Public Works located at 115 Congress Street in Belfast, Maine. The project consists of forty-eight rental apartments in five new construction buildings centered around a common green space with a natural playground that incorporates topography (e.g. hills and tunnels), texture (e.g. a variety of surface materials such as grass, native plantings, wood chips, and a boardwalk), and natural materials (e.g. logs and tree stumps). More
