The Maine Affordable Housing Coalition (MAHC) hosted its every other year Policy Conference on November 13, 2024 for a sold-out crowd of 320 professionals working to address Maine’s housing crisis. MAHC is a nonprofit with 140 business members working to preserve and create housing affordable for all Maine people.
The conference was sponsored by 40 businesses including Lighthouse Credit Union, Otis Atwell, and Bangor Savings Bank. The keynote address was delivered by Jennifer Schwartz, the Director of Tax and Housing Advocacy from the National Council of State Housing Agencies. Attendees also heard from a panel of experts on land use policy models to increase housing supply; an overview of the housing insurance market; a panel of Maine policy makers with a forecast for the 2025 Legislature; and from business leaders working to address Maine’s housing crisis.
MAHC recognized three award winners for the Elizabeth “Libby” Mitchell award, the Rick McCarthy Award, and the new Business Champion Award.
The Elizabeth H. “Libby” Mitchell Award is given every other year by MAHC to an individual who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in addressing Maine’s affordable housing problems. It was first awarded in 2009 to Senate President Elizabeth “Libby” Mitchell. The award was presented to Senator Teresa Pierce who served as the Senate Chair of the State’s first Joint Select Committee on Housing.
“The Housing Committee was a springboard for unprecedented policy progress on housing in Maine. Under her leadership, legislation from the Housing Committee made historic investments in housing production across Maine. These investments incentivize developers to build more affordable housing units, with some programs especially tailored to workforce housing and housing in rural areas. She worked tirelessly to prevent student homelessness with a pair of new laws – one that established programs to help students and families on the verge of homelessness stay in their secure housing and the other that provides housing subsidies to help students currently experiencing homelessness. Senator Pierce leveraged the Housing Committee to tackle statewide zoning changes to increase housing affordability, advancing dedicated funding for housing first supportive housing, championing housing as a bipartisan foundation for our state’s economic success, and so much more!” said Amy Cullen, Vice President of The Szanton Company, and past MAHC board chair who presented the award.
The Rick McCarthy award is named after Rick McCarthy, the longtime legislative advocate for MAHC. As a beloved leader among the state house halls and a staunch believer in housing as a human right. Rick passed away in July of 2020. Drew Wing, president of Zachau Construction and vice chair of the MAHC board presented the award to Chris LaRoche, executive director of Westbrook Housing Authority. “Chris has worked tirelessly to make affordable housing accessible to all Maine people over the last three decades at York County Community Action Agency and Westbrook Housing,” said Wing.
MAHC’s new Business Champion award honors a business that has gone above and beyond to support MAHC’s mission of creating affordable housing. MAHC honored Kennebunk Savings. “The bank has worked closely with Avesta Housing to create 70 units of affordable housing for seniors on unused property abutting their headquarters. Kennebunk Savings recognized the housing affordability challenge in their hometown and decided to do something about it. They donated land to Avesta to build affordable senior housing. But it didn’t end there. Developing housing is a long process that requires many levels of approval. Kennebunk Savings CEO Brad Paige spoke up at local planning sessions and shared a strong message to the media about their support for housing, even against community push back to the development. For directly investing resources, and leveraging their influence to provide affordable homes,” said Nate Howes, Senior Developer at Avesta Housing who serves on the MAHC board and presented the award.
