MaineHousing Announces Funding to Help Older Mainer Homeowners

MaineHousing is excited to announce $750,000 in funding for ten organizations across Maine to help older Mainers and Mainers with disabilities stay in their homes. The Community Aging in Place Grant supports local organizations to provide high-impact, low-cost minor repairs to homes across Maine.

“As Mainers, we know that community matters,” said Dan Brennan, Director of MaineHousing. “We know that when your neighbor needs help, you help your neighbor. Mainers help Mainers – and this funds programs to do exactly that.”

Maine is facing significant housing challenges when it comes to accessible and safe homes for older Mainers and Mainers with disabilities. Brennan notes that MaineHousing is funding innovative solutions to help older Mainers and Mainers with disabilities stay in their homes – and stay part of their communities.

With the belief that safe, stable housing is critical to the health and wellness of a community, MaineHousing’s Community Aging in Place Grant began in 2017 to support the replication of Bath Housing’s aging in place initiative. The inaugural funding year provided support for five Public Housing Authorities (PHA) and expanded to six in 2018. Now in its third year, the program expanded to 10 partner agencies: eight PHAs and two Community Action Agencies. Local organizations’ professional maintenance teams work with homeowners to repair and modify their homes. Improvements include installing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, adding handlebars in the shower, raising toilet seat height, changing cabinet handles, and many others.

“As a result of this funding, Mainers are thriving in their own homes,” says Brennan. “We’ve already seen great outcomes from the first phases of this funding. We’re always happy to help local communities with solutions that work for them – and to continue the tradition of Mainers helping Mainers.”

For more information about MaineHousing’s Community Aging in Place Grant, visit MaineHousing’s website. The following organizations have received this funding and are operating programs in their local communities: Augusta Housing Authority (contact: Amanda Olson), Bath Housing (contact: Deb Keller), Biddeford Housing Authority (contact: Guy Gagnon), Downeast Community Partners (contact: Mark Green), Fort Fairfield Housing Authority (contact: Stacey Michaud), Mount Desert Island and Ellsworth Housing Authorities (contact: Duane Bartlett), The Housing Authority of the City of Old Town (contact: Laurie Miller), South Portland Housing Authority (contact: Mike Hulsey), Westbrook Housing Authority (contact: Chris LaRoche), and Western Maine Community Action (contact: Bill Crandall).

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MaineHousing has helped Maine people own, rent, repair, and heat their homes since 1969. MaineHousing is an independent state authority created to address the problems of unsafe, unsuitable, overcrowded, and unaffordable housing. MaineHousing is a $1.8 billion financial institution with a staff of over 160 people. MaineHousing assists more than 90,000 Maine households and invests more than $300 million in the Maine economy annually.