MADISON, Maine — People in Madison celebrated the completion of a new affordable housing development with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Tuesday.
The project at 55 Weston Ave. features 18 apartments across two buildings, including studios, one-bedrooms, and two-bedrooms.
"In October, we started digging a hole. Here we are in May, and we have housing, and we're showing units, and people will be living here in about a week," Sam Hight, 55 Weston Avenue LLC partner said.
Hight said the apartments are available to people who make up to around $48,000 a year, and couples who make up to $68,000, offering a higher income bracket than most affordable housing in Maine.
The goal of the development is to house seniors who are looking to downsize and new workers coming to the area for places like TimberHP and New Balance, which have added hundreds of jobs in the past year.
"We have so many amazing job creators and strong companies in this region who struggle to find housing for their workforce, and it becomes a real recruiting and retention issue," Brian Eng, 55 Weston Avenue LLC partner, said.
The project was funded through the Rural Affordable Rental Housing Program, created by Gov. Mills and MaineHousing in 2022 to address Maine’s rural housing shortage.
"It's been fantastic. This is really one of the first rural projects to come to fruition," Mark Wiesendanger, MaineHousing director of development, said.
The organization is aiming to build smaller and simpler affordable units in rural areas.
"They don't have the scale that you need to create a low-income housing tax credit project for instance, usually those are maybe 40, 50 units in a rural area that doesn't always make sense," Wiesendanger said.
MaineHousing has about a dozen more rural projects it will be working on for the next few years.
"It's important to show that rural Maine really has a chance. I think rural Maine has been forgotten for some years and there's been this real revitalization of people coming together and making this a great place to live, work, and play," Hight said.
Hight said next year they are planning to create two more buildings on the site in Madison, bringing 18 more apartments to the area.