Keeping affordable housing in mind for Moosehead region

In her Dec. 5 column on Plum Creek Timber Co., Pat LaMarche included reference to Coastal Enterprises Inc.’s participation in housing development in the Moosehead Lake region. I’d like to reply to the concerns she raised.

CEI, a 30-year-old nonprofit community development corporation, is playing an active role as a development entity in advocating for affordable housing in the Moosehead Lake region. We are taking no formal position on the Plum Creek proposal. The Land Use Regulation Commission is responsible for sorting through and determining the appropriate future course of the proposal, and we support its charge to do so.

However, as the Plum Creek proposal was taking shape, CEI did see an opportunity to further support our nonprofit mission to help create economically and environmentally healthy communities, especially as they provide opportunity for people with low incomes. As we reviewed our options, our board deliberated extensively on questions of impact related to Plum Creek’s proposal. The result was a decision to offer ourselves as a vehicle through which the community could benefit from such development, if it were to proceed. As a result of negotiations with Plum Creek, they agreed to include in their proposal a loan to CEI of $1.75 million in low-cost funds, and a donation of 100 acres of land to effectively jump-start investment in the local community.

Irrespective of whether the development is approved, Plum Creek already has provided a partial low-interest loan and land donation to CEI to develop housing for fledgling families and aspiring homeowners in the Moosehead region.

The cost of those homes has not been determined but will reflect our organization’s track record of working to ensure housing affordability for Maine residents. We often achieve affordability by mixing unit prices within a project where the market rate units are priced to allow a discount of the affordable units. In the Moosehead region, we will target our efforts at people with median household incomes, who often fall through the cracks in a rapidly appreciating resort tourism market.

CEI is not the only entity in the state dealing with the challenges of affordable housing, let alone economic development. We are hopeful, as a result of our proactive involvement with Plum Creek, that statewide organizations such as the Maine State Housing Authority also will step up. MSHA can be particularly helpful in steering subsidy funds to further reduce the costs of homes. Such an outcome is not the responsibility of one, but involves the helping hand of partnerships to share funds for the desired outcome. Many hands make lighter work.

CEI’s relationship to Plum Creek is a financial partnership that furthers the goal of creating affordable housing and other community benefits. CEI’s approach was to start the ball rolling in the right direction for wider public benefit. The measure of our work is the asset we help create for people left out of the economic mainstream. As the Plum Creek economic impact unfolds – one hopes, compatible with many of the environmental concerns that are raised – we intend to continue to serve as a bridge between institutions and individuals with resources to those without, fulfilling our mission in the tradition of the civil rights movement that sought fairness and economic justice.

Ron L. Phillips is president of Coastal Enterprises Inc. in Wiscasset.