Scarborough plans Habitat homes

Group proposes largest-ever Maine project on five acres at 75 Broadturn Road in Scarborough.

SCARBOROUGH — So, you’ve just landed your dream job as a teacher in the town of Scarborough. Or, maybe it’s as a police officer or a firefighter. Naturally, the next step is to buy a home in town and settle down, right?

Yeah, good luck with that.

If you’re in your first few years in front of a classroom or wearing a badge, said Trish Tremain, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker who sits as vice chairwoman of the Scarborough Housing Alliance, the most house you can likely afford is in the neighborhood of $190,000, an issue in a town with higher-than-usual lot prices. According to Town Assessor Paul Lesperance, the median price of a home in Scarborough is $300,000.

“The problem is that, the policemen, the firemen, the teachers who work here, they can’t afford to live here,” says Town Manager Tom Hall, of town employees, most of whom make less than 80 percent of the median area income. “It costs the same to build a home here as anywhere else, but the lot alone, that drives the value beyond what someone making $50,000 can afford.”

But now, help is on the way. The Scarborough Housing Alliance, working in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Portland, is planning to build a “workforce housing” complex on five acres off Broadturn Road, next to Interstate 95. Prices for all homes in the site will be capped at the magic number: $190,000.

Details have not been finalized, and project officials are well aware of potential neighborhood opposition.Two neighborhood meetings are scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 24, 7 p.m., at the Dunstan Fire Station and Wednesday, Feb. 8, 7 p.m., at the Scarborough Public Library.

The concept now on the table calls for 11 buildings (five single-family homes and six duplexes) arranged in a “condensed village feeling.” The homes would be built with volunteer labor, including that of prospective homeowners, in the manner for which Habitat has become famous. Habitat Executive Director Stephen Bolton says it will probably take five years before the last home goes up.

“We’ve done some smaller three- and four-lot developments here and there,” he said. “But this is, by far, the largest project we’ve ever attempted.”

Bolton says as many as eight of the 17 proposed units could be sold through the Habitat model, with the organization handling the financing and holding the note. The rest would be sold using Maine State Housing’s first-time homeowner’s program.

“Those have to be capped at $190,000, but they’ll may be appraised at $230,000 or more, so it’s truly not market,” he said. “We’ll still be selling to people who otherwise would not be able to afford a house on the open market.”

Also helping to control prices – all 11 lots will be donated by the town.

In 2005, the town paid for a study of the local housing market.

"We didn't find out anything new," said Sue Foley-Ferguson, who chaired the housing authority at the time. "The availability of affordable housing in Scarborough is pretty much nil."

The problem, she said, was that while the town had a lot of high-end homes and not a few fixer-uppers, there was very little in the $200,000 range most middle-class families could afford.

At that time, says Tremain, “home prices were running 30 percent more than incomes justified.”

So, the following year, Scarborough paid $200,000 for 19.5 acres off Broadturn Road from the Maine Turnpike Authority. Located between Interstate 95 and Saratoga Lane, the front five acres of the site had been used as an equipment staging area during the interstate widening project. The Town Council dedicated that area to a future affordable housing project, while reserving the rest, which abuts conservation land, for open space.

Hall admits the project, which predates his tenure with the town, has been “challenging to bring to fruition.” It was only within the last year, when Bolton stepped in to offer up a larger version of developments Habitat has been building in Freeport, that things really got off the ground.

“We really very much value the credibility and the experience Habitat has brought to the table,” said Hall.

Now, the biggest concern is public reaction. The development site is directly across Broadturn Road from the 288-lot Dunstan Crossing subdivision. Although dubbed the “Great American Neighborhood” by its creator, Elliot Chamberlain, the project drew public scrutiny, a citizen-initiated referendum vote that overturned the town’s initial approvals and, eventually, a lawsuit.

Chamberlain initially planned 455 housing units, and, although he eventually compromised, he fought attempts to hold him to 60 units on 2-acre lots, successfully arguing in court that the town failed to provide for housing density zones called for in its comprehensive plan.

Chamberlain has built about 30 homes and condo units to date, and Hall said public reaction to Dunstan Crossing makes him extremely wary about this latest project. That’s partly because of it’s also a cluster development, and partly because of the “stigma” attached to the words “affordable housing.”

“We know from prior history that folks in this area have interest in development issues. We should be mindful of that,” said Hall. “We’ve seen many neighbors here band together to fight a project, so, I’m very mindful of the fact that we need to be very upfront with what we are doing, and give everyone an opportunity to comment and contribute their ideas very early in the process.”

“It’s also the ‘Section 8 conundrum,’” said Foley-Ferguson. “It’s, ‘Who are these people who are going to be living next to me?’ People might say, ‘What kind of people are going to live in a Habitat home?’”

According to Bolton, a Habitat project is not “the projects,” nor is it subsidized housing.

“These will all be working families,” he said. “In fact, by our rules, they would not get the house if they were not working families.”

“Of course, when we say affordable homes, we’re talking workforce housing,” said Hall.

Bolton also points out that Habitat families tend to be very stable, staying in their homes for 17 years, verses the national homeownership median of seven years. Still, the guard against people “flipping” their Habitat homes, the organization requires what’s known as a “soft second” mortgage for any home it finances. Essentially, whenever the Habitat homeowner sells, he or she must pay back the difference between the subsidized price they paid and the assessed value at that time.

Hall said that before the project goes before the Planning Board, possibly as soon as March or April, a similar deal may have to be reached for the units financed under Maine Housing.