Housing affordability and availability is at an all-time low in Maine. The solution is building housing. Our state must decide now whether to keep layering process on top of process — or to take bold action and build.

From Kittery to Fort Kent, Mainers are struggling to find places to live. According to the 2025 HR&A Advisors Roadmap to Housing Production, Maine needs to add 84,000 new homes by 2030 to meet current and projected demand.

At our current pace, we’re not even close.

The problem isn’t just the number of homes. It’s the system that prevents us from building them quickly. Long permitting delays, overly restrictive zoning and fragmented development processes add months — or years — to every project. As the Urban Institute’s Sarah Rosen Wartell writes, “We need to build faster without sacrificing our values.” That means finding smarter ways to integrate community and environmental protections while reducing red tape that holds back desperately needed homes.

The Maine Affordable Housing Coalition is working with partners across the state to advocate for a slate of bipartisan legislative actions that reflect the HR&A roadmap’s recommendations and respond directly to ensuring all Maine people have a home and our economy can thrive.

In two key areas to move the needle in making Maine a place our youth can thrive, our workers can build roots in communities, and our older adults can maintain their homes, the time for action is now.

Ask your legislators to support:

• LD 1829 to address zoning, review and permitting road blocks and promote small, infill home building to create thriving neighborhoods.
• Funding to support building new homes with a bond like LD 483 or LD 690; and LD 1082, which expands and dedicates real estate transfer tax revenues to new homes.

Maine’s Legislature has a rare opportunity to act on these two solutions. By implementing the HR&A Roadmap and the slate of bills aligned with each recommendation, Maine can cut the unnecessary red tape holding back housing production so we can create a state where Maine people can afford to live, work and thrive.

In the remainder of this legislative session and into next year, the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition is also supporting the following bills that help fulfill the Roadmap to Housing Production by:

• Streamlining permitting and approvals. We are supporting legislation like LD 970 to expedite reviews for affordable housing projects and LD 128 to simplify site law permitting for multifamily housing.

• Legalizing and incentivizing diverse housing types. MAHC has backed LD 997 to allow residential development in commercial zones and LD 546 to develop pre-approved building types.

• Zoning and subdivision reform. We have testified in support of LD 1247 to limit restrictive local ordinances and LD 161 to modernize state subdivision laws.

• Improving transparency and data. We testified in support of LD 1184, which requires municipalities to report housing data to track and guide future production.

• Reducing costs and encouraging innovation. MAHC supports LD 1419 to exempt off-site constructed housing from a duplicative sales tax.

• Removing financial barriers and supporting tenants. We support LD 746 for a local-option lodging tax for short-term rentals for affordable housing development, and LD 255 to help mobile home park residents purchase their communities.

This is about delivering on Maine’s values. Each month we delay housing production means more seniors in deteriorating homes, more young families leaving the state and more workers priced out of their communities. We can no longer afford a system that puts process above outcomes.

Housing is the solution to Maine people’s well-being and financial success. But only if we build — and build now.