Housing

Vibrant year-round communities and a strong regional economy depend on housing, yet the Midcoast is facing a growing disconnect.

Young professionals struggle to find entry-level homes
Families compete for a limited housing supply, leaving working-class families behind
Long-time residents looking to downsize often have few options within their own communities

Housing is a critical area of concern in the Midcoast as well as across Maine. MCOG is focused on developing a deeper understanding of the housing market in our region as well as assisting and building the capacity of stakeholders. Reach out to Alexis Mann at amann@midcoastcog.com for any housing support.

Housing Ready Certification

MCOG has developed a framework for municipalities and stakeholders to understand their specific housing needs, set reasonable goals, and begin working towards them called the Housing Ready Certification. Rooted in MCOG’s Strategic Plan and developed collaboratively with partners across the region, the Certification is a practical policy framework designed to address local housing challenges while advancing regional alignment.

Through a step-by-step process, the Certification integrates data analysis, policy development, and targeted technical assistance to strengthen local housing strategies and support a more resilient and connected housing continuum. Read more about the Certification here.

Housing Opportunity Program

What we do:
How we can help your community

Craft Housing Goals/Policy

Each community in the Midcoast region is unique and has unique housing challenges and goals. MCOG can guide data-informed policy decision-making process and offer technical support catered to your community. We are poised to work with municipalities, housing trusts, employers looking for employee-housing solutions, organizations interested in housing strategies for older adults, unhoused populations, and supportive housing, or other entities involved in working towards solving our housing crisis.

Data/GIS Services

Good housing policy begins with data, and MCOG has our own in-house data analysis capacity. You can view our datasets on current housing figures, short-term rentals, and analytics of housing shortage and needs here. If you have specific data requests, MCOG can tailor datasets to your community to help inform your housing policy. Please reach out to Charlotte Nutt at cnutt@midcoastcog.com to discuss your data needs.

Community Engagement around Housing

Once a municipality determines their housing needs and the necessary policies, community engagement is a crucial step in moving forward. MCOG can strengthen local government engagement strategies through presentations, facilitation, and background support.

Implementation: Technical Assistance, Land Use Policy, and Site Plan Review

Alongside community buy-in, local housing policy requires consideration of ordinances, land use, and technical procedures like site plan review. Read more about our technical assistance program here.

Short-Term Rental Support

Many municipalities face challenges with short-term rentals being an important avenue for the economic benefits of tourism while also consuming otherwise year-round housing stock. MCOG can help communities make sense of this issue, including data specific to your community, an STR framework, and a model ordinance.

Support in Navigating Legislative Updates

In the last few legislative sessions, Maine has seen major changes relating to housing policy and state mandates on municipal ordinances, including LD 2003, LD 1829, LD 2173. MCOG can support your community with understanding and implementing these changes.

Grant Assistance

If your community or organization needs support while applying for a housing-related grant, MCOG is a resource for technical support. We can provide data, policy language, or other grant-related needs.

Comprehensive Plan Support

MCOG assists municipalities with Comprehensive Plans, which outlines the town's housing goals. Please reach out with any questions about Comprehensive Plan support, and how to make the most out of the process to guide housing policies that make the most sense for your town.

Regional Housing Planning

MCOG can help groups of municipalities or housing trusts plan what's best for the region. With new development comes added pressure on local infrastructure, and these challenges take stakeholder engagement. MCOG is happy to discuss how we can support regional efforts in housing.

Redevelopment

MCOG works closely with Maine Redevelopment Land Bank Authority to revitalize vacant, abandoned, or blighted buildings. Many of these projects are housing-focused because of the need for housing in the region. MCOG also currently has a combined grant and low-interest loan program for brownfield assessment and remediation.

Projects

Housing Ready Certification

Housing is not just about affordability—it’s about availability, and the Housing Ready Certification is designed to help communities find the right tools to address their local housing needs.

Step 1 - Data Analysis & the Housing Continuum: The first step in the Housing Ready Certification process is to work with our data specialists who will create a tailored housing gaps and housing continuum analysis for your community. MCOG’s 2023 Housing Gaps Analysis and 2025 Housing Continuum Dataset will help to not only clarify how many units are needed in a given community, but also who those units should be designed for.

Step 2 - Housing Goals & Policy Tools: Learnings from Step 1 will help communities identify their top housing priority(s) and corresponding municipal policy tools needed to advance those goals. See the Housing Ready Matrix for more details.

Step 3 - TA and Implementation: Once housing goals and policy tools are chosen, MCOG will help municipalities with on-the-ground technical assistance – from ordinance writing to facilitating stakeholder convenings to help ensure successful implementation.

Short-Term Rental Support

Communities face both benefits and challenges from short-term rentals. To support our communities, MCOG has:

Developed key data;
Created a STR framework;
And drafted a model ordinance

This process is fairly standard for MCOG's housing work. It includes data as a first step, followed by policy framework, and finally technical assistance/implementation.

ADU Pilot Program

With funding from the State of Maine, Midcoast Council of Governments (MCOG) is offering ADU Boost in 3 pilot communities: Bath, Brunswick, and Rockland. The $10,000 incentive grants are intended to encourage homeowners to build ADUs to help address the region’s rental housing needs. Click here for more information.

Housing-Specific Datasets

Short-Term Rental Dataset: the current number and ownership of STR's by community
Housing Measures: for MCOG's Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy process, MCOG created a deep housing dataset that covers a broad range of topics so our communities can understand more about housing within their towns and the region.
Housing Gaps Analysis: calculation of the current shortage of housing units by labor market area
Housing Continuum: expands on the Housing Gaps Analysis with an exploration of who needs those units and where the housing continuum is stuck.

Webinar on Legislative Updates

MCOG conducted a webinar on LD2003 to discuss the changes that municipalities face and offer guidance in adopting the new State law. You can view the full video here.

Community Presentations

MCOG has worked with many communities around the region on housing projects. Below, you can see some PowerPoints that MCOG has presented at Housing Committees or in Public Hearings. Each presentation is tailored to the unique needs of each municipality.

Monhegan Housing Study

Development and Redevelopment

MCOG has worked in communities and subregions on housing

Union

Midcoast Housing Trust

Five Rivers Subregional Group

Downtown Thomaston Redevelopment

As part of the redevelopment of first floor space in downtown Thomaston, MCOG is assisting the Thomaston Development Corporation in also examining the redevelopment of upper floor space into housing

Bath/Bath Iron Works Underwriting

As an example of housing support work, MCOG assisted in the underwriting review of the BIW/Developer's collaborative TIF in the support of affordable housing.