Bill would give Maine more accurate home construction data
Apr. 9—When state officials issued a report in late 2023 saying that Maine needed to build 84,000 new homes in the next seven years to accommodate its current and future population, housing advocates knew it would be difficult to accurately track progress toward that goal.
That's because Maine, like most states, doesn't have a uniform system to collect home production data that's already available in many city and town offices. Instead, MaineHousing and other agencies rely on construction estimates based on data that some municipalities provide voluntarily to the U.S. Census Bureau.
LD 1184 would take some of the guesswork out fixing Maine's housing crisis by requiring municipalities to report annual home construction data — including building, demolition and occupancy permits — to the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development. The data would be overseen and organized into an online portal by the department's Housing Opportunity Program, which promotes residential development that's affordable to low- and moderate-income Mainers.
In gathering more accurate housing data, Maine would become the second state in the nation to tackle its housing crisis by the numbers. Connecticut began closely tracking home construction and demolition data in recent years.
LD 1184 would allow Maine to "manage and measure" its progress in promoting home construction, said Rep. Traci Gere, D-Kennebunkport, the bill's primary sponsor, testifying Tuesday before the Legislature's housing committee.
Currently, Maine estimates home production at the state and county levels based on building permit data submitted voluntarily to the Census Bureau, said Hilary Gove, a Housing Opportunity Program coordinator. Because it's voluntary, many Maine municipalities don't collect or report building permit data to the bureau, resulting in data gaps, Gove told the committee.
"Relying on this building permit data is not an exact measure of housing production because not all reported building permits for housing units result in completed housing units," Gove said. "By requiring municipalities to collect and report (comprehensive housing data) on an annual basis, we will have a more precise picture of housing production from year to year."
Committee member Rep. Amanda Collamore, R-Pittsfield, questioned whether reporting housing data would be mandatory, which would require the bill to get two-thirds House approval. Collamore also questioned whether smaller towns would have a difficult time complying with limited staffing and budgets and whether municipalities would be penalized if they didn't participate.
Gere said the bill doesn't call for penalties, the reporting form would be designed to not be "burdensome," and sponsors were open to making compliance optional — which prompted committee member Rep. Mark Walker, R-Naples, to question whether optional reporting would diminish the purpose of the legislation.
Eamonn Dundon, advocacy director for the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce, spoke in favor of the bill, noting the need for accurate home construction data and the success of a pilot program conducted by the Greater Portland Council of Governments.
Kristina Egan, executive director of GPCOG, said the pilot program drew voluntary compliance from 26 of 29 communities in Cumberland County and tallied nearly 1,600 new homes in the region in 2024. Moreover, municipal staff who provided housing data said it took one to two hours to fill out the online form.
The pilot revealed significant discrepancies in census-based home construction estimates, according to a GPCOG report. While the regional census estimated that 1,392 homes were built in the region last year, the municipalities counted 1,568 homes — an 11% increase or 176 additional homes.
Looking at data for individual communities, the census estimated that 47 homes were built in Cape Elizabeth, while the town counted only 16 homes — a 194% difference or 31 fewer homes. And the census estimated that three homes were built in Yarmouth, while the town counted 13 homes — a 77% difference or 10 additional homes.
Gove, the state Housing Opportunity Program coordinator, suggested a few bill amendments, including the addition of a yearly deadline of Jan. 31 to submit data.
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