GREENVILLE, Maine — A new housing development project that will provide 29 units of housing for people living in Greenville is currently in the works after the nonprofit Northern Forest Center purchased five acres of land at the intersection of Spruce Street and Mayhew Manor Road.
Northern Forest Center is a regional organization that helps innovate rural areas across Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York.
The organization's senior program director Mike Wilson said the project will cost $11.5 million to complete. He also added that the area is not construction ready, explaining that it needs to have water and sewage lines installed.
Due to the necessary infrastructure groundwork, he said the housing likely won't be available for use until 2026.
"We've heard repeatedly over and over again this issue around housing and the struggle businesses have attracting or attaining workers," Wilson said. "And it's not just the local businesses, it's the hospitals, the schools."
Wilson explained that Northern Forest Center has worked closely with Greenville town leaders for more than 10 years on other projects.
While working on other projects, he and leaders from the organization couldn't ignore the need for missing middle housing in the area.
Missing middle housing is a term that categorizes housing that is meant to be affordable for the average working citizen who may have a yearly income that exceeds the maximum income requirement needed to receive government assistance, but who may still struggle to make ends meet.
"I think it's fair to say the response of the town has been highly favorable," Wilson said.
Year round, and especially during the summer, Greenville welcomes thousands of tourists to the area who vacation at hotspots like Moosehead Lake.
The area is accommodating for tourists, and it offers a wide variety of short-term rentals tourists vacation at.
Sometimes, the downside to living in a tourist destination community is that the area becomes inconvenient for people who live in the area permanently.
People like community member Nathaniel Douglas, who is originally from Greenville, are feeling the negative impacts that often plague destination or popular vacation communities.
"I was a month away from probably having to relocate out of town or move back in with my parents," Douglas said.
Douglas said housing in the area is extremely overpriced. He said that out-of-state investors have moved in, purchased available housing, and jacked up prices well over regular market rates.
Douglas is one of many community members in the area who couldn't find housing and who couldn't afford to pay increasing rent prices.
"Most apartments that are here in town, they're going for a studio apartment $1300-$1500, which you're talking like, New York City prices," Douglas said.
He explained that while Greenville has become a relaxing vacation spot for tourists, it has simultaneously become a place that reminds them of how little control he has as a community member.
"Really, its put us in a position where if you're a typical worker, you feel powerless," he said.
Town manager Mike Roy said Airbnb and short-term rentals has contributed to some of the housing deficiency in the area.
"The Airbnb's, they haven't taken over, but they're a huge part of our home crisis," Roy said.
According to Roy, there are currently no restrictions or regulations for short-term rentals. Douglas said with no regulations by the town or by the state as a whole, big corporate companies get free range to crowd the market.
"They just see money come in. They say, 'That's great. We need that.' Which we do, we're poor. This is a poor area," Douglas said. "But, if you're just going to end up, for a lack of better terms, screwing your locals, then was it worth it?"
Some business owners have even had to provide housing accommodations when they hire new employees.
Billie Udoh, who is a manager at Dockside Inn and Tavern, was provided housing by the businesses owner after relocating from New York to Greenville.
"It was luck for me," Udoh said. "At the same time, I kind of feel it was a huge relief because it's kind of hard to go to a new site or a new community and start looking for a house."
An employee at Northwoods Outfitters said the store owners have had to rent their own units out to multiple employees just to retain staff as well.
Roy has seen first-hand how short-term rentals have depleted the towns available housing market and how basic needs like housing have been hard to come by for community members.
"So, the hope is that young families will come to town and move into these new units. They'll help support the school," Roy said.
According to Roy, young families may even benefit by housing that becomes freed up with the addition of the new units. He explained that with the new housing development, older people might be willing to sell their homes and downsize to one of the 29 units that will soon be available.
While Roy hopes the new housing will attract people to the area and resolve some of the housing availability woes, locals like Douglas just hope the housing will provide balance for those who have called Greenville home for decades.
"Towns in Maine have been put in the position where it either goes like this, what we have, or you end up with businesses boarded up, closed, the population just tanks," Douglas said.