(Charlie Kennedy contributed to this article)

Nancy Hayes, a retired school social worker, moved into her new Landon Woods home on May 10.  She said she had been searching for a home in Kennebunkport for the past three years, having just missed out on the resale of a Neighborhood Housing Trust property in Heritage Woods three years ago. 

“It’s allowed me to stay in a town that I’ve been connected to since the early 1960s,” Hayes said of her new home. “I can age in place in a beautiful setting with all the friends and activities that I love.” 

Hayes is one of the residents selected for a home in the new Landon Woods housing complex built by the Neighborhood Housing Trust off Beachwood Road in Kennebunkport. The homes are duplexes, a mix of single-story, two-bedroom homes and two-story, three-bedroom homes. All six are now occupied. Only applicants with an annual household income of $110,240 or less were eligible for the homes. Income guidelines were set by MaineHousing. Thirty individuals applied to be considered for Landon Woods, and of those, 12 qualified for mortgages. Once applicants qualified for a mortgage, which includes attending a first-time homeowner’s course, winners were drawn at random. 

The Neighborhood Housing Trust’s goal is to build residences for working families and seniors, who are increasingly shut out of the current housing market. Zillow data reported in the spring of this year shows median home values in the three communities of Arundel, Kennebunk and Kennebunkport ranging from $620,000 to $1.1 million.  Median yearly income across the three towns for year-round residents ranges from $84,000 to $105,000. This effectively puts a home purchase out of reach for a typical resident of the three communities. Based on property tax address data, roughly half of the homes in Kennebunkport are owned by non-residents.

Larissa Crockett, executive director of the trust, said there are significant challenges in creating affordable housing in southern coastal Maine. “You have a real tension between a desperate need for housing and a desperate desire to maintain the community that we all love,” she said. “Oftentimes people see these as being in conflict.” 

The organization is looking to expand their housing strategy from the two completed neighborhoods in Kennebunkport to the communities of Arundel and Kennebunk. A more varied approach to affordable housing is in the works, building not just neighborhoods, but single-family homes or duplexes on smaller lots.

Crockett said that in Kennebunkport, the Neighborhood Housing Trust has used larger land tracts to build two neighborhoods, but they are now looking at creating duplexes or single-family homes on half-acre lots. “Every building will be providing needed housing. Since this is a model that MaineHousing won’t subsidize, we intend to build and sell at cost.”

Some residents had concerns around the initial Heritage Woods project, including the loss of property tax dollars on Neighborhood Housing Trust neighborhoods, and that homeowners could ultimately sell and profit unduly. The organization is a non-profit and owns the land in the Heritage Woods neighborhood, so property taxes on that land are not assessed.

However, Kennebunkport Town Manager Laurie Smith said that the concerns about property tax have been addressed in the Landon Woods neighborhood, because the land and homes are owned by the new residents, who pay property taxes on both. Further, the properties’ resale price is income restricted and that limitation, “is reflected in the appraisal,” said Smith.

Crockett said that deed restrictions are in place to ensure that each home will remain within affordable guidelines. “Homeowners agree to a resale price formula tied to area median income. So as median income increases, the home price can increase – and will sell to households making up to 120% of median income,” she said. The new residents of Landon Woods include three teachers, a nurse, a retired social worker, two hospitality workers and an administrative support person, according to Crockett. All had lived or worked in Kennebunk or Kennebunkport prior to acquiring the Landon Woods homes.

The Neighborhood Housing Trust said it uses multiple strategies to make its homes more affordable. Land for the Landon Woods homes was donated by the Town of Kennebunkport, for example. “At the time, the select board could sell tax-acquired land and this land used to be a granite quarry, so it was a very challenging piece of property and would not garner a lot on the market,” Smith explained.

The select board had discussed the need for affordable housing, and it was willing to approve the donation of land as long as the trust was willing to restructure so that property taxes were paid, according to Smith.

The availability of the new Landon Woods homes, along with the application that begins the qualification process, is on its website. There are no residency requirements to apply.  Anyone who meets the $110,240 per household income restriction can apply.

As in Landon Woods, acquiring land at no cost from municipalities is one of the ways housing trusts keep costs down. Crockett explained that, “We are hoping to be on the November ballot in both Kennebunk and Kennebunkport for land that will allow us to test our expansion into not [only] neighborhoods but also single-family homes.”