The South Portland Housing Authority has opened a new, 44-unit building near Cash Corner, designed for seniors and disabled adults.
The Ridgeland Gardens development is already full and meets a need for affordable housing for Maine’s aging population, according to the housing authority. The units are available to those 55 or older and the monthly rent of $860 per month includes utilities, laundry facilities, a fitness room, WiFi access and community gardens.
“This is a great neighborhood for our elderly to live in and this new building provides them with beautiful new units,” said Michael Hulsey, executive director of the housing authority.
He also noted that being close to highways and the city’s bus line makes “this location work well” for the targeted tenants.
The goal behind the Ridgeland Gardens development was “to provide an affordable home for South Portland residents who are 55 or older and whose income is less than 60 percent of median income,” which is $32,761 a year for one person and $37,440 for two, Hulsey told the Current this week.
“Housing of this type is difficult to find especially at (a monthly rate of) $860,” he added.
Hulsey said development costs were a little more than $6 million for the project, which abuts another housing authority property, the 80-unit Ridgeland Estates.
Even with the addition of Ridgeland Gardens to its holdings, waiting lists to get into housing authority properties are long, with 66 people on the list for the new property and 106 waiting for a spot at Ridgeland Estates, he said.
Residents love the new building, he said. “There’s (already) a real sense of community there. Overall, they say it is a great community to live in, as well as being affordable.”
With Ridgeland Gardens, the South Portland Housing Authority owns and operates 685 units across the city. The agency has four new projects in the pipeline, although Hulsey noted that “(getting) funding is extremely competitive.”
The next project in line, he said, is a small, five-unit building designed for families, with three bedrooms each. In addition, Hulsey said, “We would like to develop another 20 units in Landry Village where we have 68 units already.”
Overall, he said, “With the housing crisis in full swing, and a real problem existing for those who want to raise their family in South Portland, what the South Portland Housing Authority provides is a developer who is not profit-motivated, but rather (one) who wants to create the housing the city needs and to keep rents at an affordable level.”
At a ribbon cutting for Ridgeland Gardens, held on July 25, Mayor Tom Blake noted, “The housing authority has always been a great partner with the community. (Its) continued growth helps with the more immediate problem of severe shortages in the housing market.”
Josh Reny, South Portland’s assistant city manager and a member of the ad hoc Affordable Housing Committee, told the Current this week that, “Housing affordability has become a significant problem in Cumberland County, especially in the more urban areas.”
“It’s estimated that nearly half of renters in South Portland are paying more than 30 percent of their income for housing, which is a common measure of housing affordability,” Reny said.
Reny said the changes society is experiencing, with millennials waiting longer to purchase homes, baby boomers and their parents more frequently choosing to downsize and simplify their living arrangements and a steady in-migration, particularly to southern Maine “are all putting pressure (and) added demand on the (local) rental market.”
And, he said, “Oftentimes people think of affordable housing as only for those with low incomes, but housing affordability is also very much a middle class issue in this area.”
Reny said the ad hoc housing committee, “Estimates that about 20 percent of renters who are struggling with housing affordability (in the city) earn more than $35,000 per year.”
Formed this past spring to look at the issue of housing and affordability in South Portland, the Affordable Housing Committee has come up with a total of 26 recommended actions to improve the situation, Reny said.
Among them are several key policies, including eliminating density limits in some multifamily neighborhoods, allowing the conversion of single-family homes into multifamily units in certain zones, allowing contract zones for multifamily developments and establishing a housing trust fund to facilitate the creation of new affordable housing units.
Celebrating the grand opening of the new Ridegland Gardens development in South Portland last week were, from left, John Gallagher of the Maine State Housing Authority; Mayor Tom Blake, Mike Hulsey, executive director of the South Portland Housing Authority; Kevin Glynn, chairman emeritus of the housing authority board; and John Gerken, director of maintenance and facilities at the housing authority.
The new 44-unit Ridgeland Gardens development is a project of the South Portland Housing Authority.
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