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  • Encouraging New Housing Development

    Housing affects everything—attracting workers, retaining youth, and making sure our seniors have a safe place to call home. We need new housing units, and a lot of them.

    The City wants to help developers build affordable and workforce housing in Rockland by making it easier for them to win funding from MaineHousing.

    Why help developers apply for MaineHousing funding?

    • MaineHousing funding is competitive, and some programs give extra points to applications that include financial support from the city.
    • City funding could help bring in much larger amounts of state or federal money to build new housing in Rockland.
    • When a project is funded by MaineHousing, the homes must stay affordable for a  period of time and meet other requirements, and MaineHousing makes sure of it.

    What kind of financial help would the City consider?

    • The City would consider offering a Credit Enhancement Agreement (CEA) that would return part of the taxes paid by a housing project to help cover its costs.
    • The project must be in the Downtown Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District or be big enough for the City to consider creating a new TIF District.
    • The City would consider giving back up to 50% of the new taxes generated by the project, or the amount recommended by MaineHousing, whichever is less.
    • In effect, the City’s assistance to the project would be funded by the project itself.

    The City has already approved two CEAs to assist developers applying for MaineHousing funding—and is interested in doing more.

    To learn more about how the City can support workforce and affordable housing through TIF, contact CED@rocklandmaine.gov.

    A rendering of four new houses on a street with people walking and lots of greenery and trees

    An affordable senior housing community with 49 new housing units at 118 Maverick Street won funding from MaineHousing with help from a City CEA.