Bangor leaders want to know what housing the city has, what is needed, and find recommendations on how to fill those gaps.
To achieve that, the city council’s Business and Economic Development Committee on Wednesday approved the city to contract with HR&A Advisors to develop a housing production plan. The process will take about six months and cost $75,000, which will come out of a pot of remaining funding the city rolled over from last year, said Debbie Laurie, Bangor city manager.
The housing production plan is the latest step city councilors have taken toward their goal of expanding and improving housing in Bangor in 2024. That goal is intended to fight ongoing housing issues, such as a lack of available housing and skyrocketing rent and purchase costs, that Bangor and Maine are struggling with.
The study isn’t designed to solely help the city tackle growing homelessness, its other primary challenge, Councilor Gretchen Schaefer said.
“It’s about taking a broad look at what we have, what we need, what can we do, what can we slow down on building and what we should speed up on building,” Schaefer said. “If it comes back that we don’t need more single family homes but need more apartments for young people, then we can spend our dollars wisely and build what is actually needed.”
The city hopes the analysis acts as a hyperlocal version of the statewide housing production needs study, which HR&A created for the Maine State Housing Authority, according to Anne Krieg, Bangor’s economic development director.
That study, released in October, revealed the state needs roughly 38,500 homes to make up for historic underproduction, plus an additional 37,900 to 45,800 homes by 2030 to meet expected population growth.
Developing a local housing production plan was recommended by the city’s 2022 comprehensive plan and the 2019 Bangor housing work group.
The housing needs study will begin with analyzing residential demand and the existing housing market, according to Francis Goyes, HR&A project manager. That information is developed by collecting census data, recent housing sale information, and speaking with Bangor renters and landlords, among other sources.
Then, in April through July, HR&A will develop strategies and tools Bangor can use to fill the gaps and outline how city leaders should prioritize that work, Goyes said. The city can also direct the agency on what they want to prioritize, such as making sure residents have access to affordable housing, are able to own their own home if they want, or can age in place.
“For example, we know in Maine and Bangor especially, access to homeownership, particularly for folks who are younger, is increasingly difficult,” Goyes said. “Knowing that, we can talk about a down payment assistance program or how town resources could be used to support those homeowners.”
The city also has the option to ask the agency to find sites around town that could hold housing in the future, which the agency would do from July to September.
HR&A completed a similar study last year for the Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Council of Governments, the planning organization for neighboring cities of Fargo, North Dakota, and Moorhead, Minnesota.
That study illustrated how housing has become increasingly unaffordable in the region, the housing needs the area will likely face over the next decades, and proposed solutions to those challenges, said Adam Altenburg, community and transportation analyst for the group.
“In 2022, the median household income for the area was $71,000 and the average home value was $274,000,” Altenburg said. “At this level, less than 20 percent of renters and 50 percent of all residents could afford the average home value without becoming cost-burdened.”