MaineHousing will finance more than 300 new apartments for older adults and families across eight projects ranging from Biddeford to Belfast, the agency and Gov. Janet Mills’ office announced Friday.

With this latest round of financing, the Maine State Housing Authority has helped fund over 1,000 new units in the last 12 months.

“We have more work to do, but we are a step closer to the day we can say to every family who wants to live and work here in Maine, ‘Welcome Home,'” Mills said in a news release.

Two years ago, a state report estimated that Maine needed to add 84,000 homes by 2030 to meet the demand from current and future residents.

Two of the projects — McLain School Housing in Rockland and the second phase of building at the Soleil Apartments in Lewiston — will add a combined 57 units for families. The remaining six projects will be reserved for people 55 and older.

The hundreds of units for older adults should have a ripple effect, according to the administration, “providing affordable housing options for many people who may be looking to downsize, which can help free up single-family homes in Maine’s already tight real estate market.”

In October, the median single-family home in Maine sold for $426,000, a record high. In Cumberland and York counties, where the majority of the units are proposed, the median sale prices were $608,000 and $550,000, respectively.

There are 101 units in two projects headed for Portland and another 38 for South Portland. Other projects are planned for Belfast, Biddeford, Lewiston and Rockland.

It was not clear how much these units may cost for residents or what the income restrictions will be.

The agency estimates that development from the 311 units will generate almost $117 million in economic activity in the state.

“The developments represent a significant addition to our portfolio at a time when the need for affordable housing has never been greater,” said Dan Brennan, director of MaineHousing.

Other projects approved this year include 41 units in Portland’s historic Time and Temperature Building, 44 at Lewiston’s former Martel School, and 44 at the corner of Ash and Bates Streets — the first half of the Soleil development.

MaineHousing has 1,500 affordable units in the pipeline, according to the governor’s office, and by the end of the year, will have added an additional 851 to the state’s housing stock.

But officials expect that pipeline to taper in the coming years without more funding from the Legislature.

The eight projects announced Friday are supported by $14.3 million in federal and state affordable housing tax credits, according to the news release. There is about $14.5 million left in Maine’s $80 million affordable housing state tax credit program, which Mills signed in 2020. The tax credit expires in 2028.

In June, MaineHousing sounded the alarm that two other important pots of money — funding for the Affordable Home Ownership Program and the Affordable Rural Rental Program, which accounted for 262 of the 1,022 units this year — had been depleted.

Scott Thistle, spokesperson for the quasi-state agency, said Friday that the subsidy for the programs has not yet been reauthorized.