What can we do about housing discrimination and high rents? LD1710!

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With two months left in the long session, legislators still have time to enact housing solutions that address what people are facing across Maine: unaffordable rents, homelessness, evictions, discrimination and lack of housing.

Maine Equal Justice, our Housing Leadership team and dozens of community partners working to secure housing for low income families day in and day out have set our expectations high because the stakes are so high. We are closely watching the newly-formed Joint Select Committee on Housing, which is looking at dozens of bills, many that can make a huge impact in people's lives right now.

Maine's housing problems and the bills to help fix them can feel complicated to untangle. Here, we want to share two truly important pieces that could help thousands of Mainers find safe and affordable homes--that have yet to be heard by the legislature.

These two policies, protecting Maine renters from income discrimination and providing more direct financial help to low-income renters, are part of the Housing Opportunities for Maine or HOME Act (LD 1710). They could help thousands of Mainers find safe and affordable homes, or stay in the homes and communities where they already have established their futures.

Mainers are paying much more than they can afford on rent. What can be done and how would we pay for it?

Business is booming in Maine’s real estate market. Property values have increased during the pandemic in every county across the state. The median home price in Maine was $295,000 in 2021, $255,000 in 2020 and $225,000 in 2019--a 16% increase over 2020 and a 31% increase since 2019.

Meanwhile, wages can’t keep up with rising housing costs, and homebuyers and renters (who are much more likely to have low incomes) are falling behind. Extremely low income tenants are feeling the greatest crunch; even affordable housing units are out of reach--so while building affordable housing is helpful, it cannot be the whole solution.

The rent is simply too damn high for a lot of people, and waitlists for federal vouchers are years long and tens of thousands of people deep.

Adjusting Maine’s Real Estate Transfer Tax (or RETT) rates will capture some of the growth in Maine’s real estate market, growth that is contributing to the affordability crisis in many parts of the State.

Here are some surprising facts about the tax:

• The RETT has not been changed for at least 20 years, the longest the state has gone without updating it, and stands at just 0.44 percent.
• All of our neighboring New England states have higher property transfer tax rates than Maine with New Hampshire and Vermont being nearly three times higher.
• With inflation, the $2.20/$500 rate in 1993 would be equal to $4.04 in 2021 dollars.

Even a modest increase will go a long way to fund programs to aid low-income renters, and it will do so without harming Maine’s real estate market. LD 1710 would not raise the RETT for anyone selling their home at or below the median home sales price in their county, and yet the funds generated from this increase could help about 1,200 households afford to stay in their homes or to afford somewhere to move to. Providing secure housing to these households will help lift a huge burden from municipalities, schools, local businesses and nonprofits that are currently struggling to meet overwhelming demand for support from unhoused and insecurely housed Maine families.

What is income discrimination in housing? Why does it harm us all?

Where we live is one of our most important freedoms. Housing makes a big difference in what jobs we can take, our kids' education, the people we build our lives with--our future. Housing IS opportunity.

Unfortunately, some landlords discriminate against people who use housing vouchers to pay for their rent, and Maine renters don’t have enough legal protection to fight back. These landlords can act like gatekeepers in communities with tight rental markets, and as a result, families with vouchers can’t find anywhere affordable to live near their work, where their kids are already in school, or in the communities where they have ties.

Tenants who have a voucher usually have to apply to dozens of landlords before finding one who is willing to take them, even though they have a reliable income to pay rent. A lot of families and individuals have had to give up their vouchers, unable to take advantage of the federal funds in programs like Section 8 because of unfair discrimination. In fact, there are currently anywhere from 600-800 unused vouchers in Maine because tenants cannot find a landlord who accepts them.

When Maine Equal Justice teamed up with people with low income in Maine to think about housing solutions, they told us, “You can create enough vouchers to help everyone in Maine, but it still wouldn’t mean people can find places to rent to them. We need to deal with discrimination.” So the bill includes a ban on discrimination against a tenant based on their participation in federal, state, or local rental assistance programs, and if it’s successful, Maine would join 17 other states that have passed income discrimination protections for renters.

Passing these protections would be a big win for racial and economic equity--regardless of a landlord’s intent, a policy of refusing to rent to voucher holders is most likely to hurt already marginalized Mainers: tenants of color, people with disabilities, single women heads of household, and families with children. It shifts low-income tenants into substandard housing in poor neighborhoods and perpetuates segregation, which works against our national fair housing laws.

Can Maine make big changes in our housing policy? YES. But if it’s going to happen, it’ll take all of us!

If we're really going to make the changes that everyone can see, if we want fewer unjust evictions and fewer friends and neighbors in tents, campers, and doorways, if we want stronger and safer schools and downtowns, we need to unite now for changes like those in the HOME Act, especially rent relief and income discrimination protection.

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