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We, a single professional mother and a landlord committed to housing those in need, have come together to make the case for rental assistance as an eviction prevention tool to keep lower income families and individuals stably housed. Maine needs 20,000 units of affordable housing to meet the demand and there are currently over 15,000 households on the waiting list for the federal section 8 rental assistance program. According to a recent Maine Affordable Housing Coalition eviction study, 73 percent of all evictions were for nonpayment of a small amount of back rent averaging around $1,235.
When people are evicted from their homes the devastation that ripples into every aspect of their lives has lasting impacts: children are unable to focus on school, health declines, behavioral health crises increase, jobs are lost, debts that are impossible to pay increase, and possessions are lost. Losing a home, losing a safe place to lay your head, may be the most destabilizing event that a family or individual will experience. At this time in the Maine housing crisis, we cannot risk the financial and human cost of losing more homes at this time.
That is why we support LD 1540, An Act to Create the Stable Home Fund, a bill that landlords and tenants support that creates a two year rental assistance pilot program for lower income households to prevent nonpayment related evictions.
Peace Mutesi
Tenant
Wendy Harmon
Landlord
Portland
