During the Winslow City Council meeting last week, the council addressing housing issues, marking the initiation of a promising partnership with Habitat for Humanity aimed at providing low-income housing solutions in Winslow. This collaboration is particularly focused on facilitating the transition of residents into homeownership, a crucial step in enhancing community stability and prosperity.
The council’s role in this partnership involves granting Habitat for Humanity expedited processes for developing residential housing. Additionally, the council agreed to waive fees associated with these developments. This decision is a strategic move to streamline the housing construction process, making it more efficient and less costly.
In the discussion about the city’s housing initiative, Winslow City Manager David Coolidge spoke about the purpose of the council passing the resolution to support affordable housing. He expressed, “Passing this is enough commitment to be aggressive for funding purposes, there’s a lot of Department of Housing money out there.” This is one facet of the ways the city is looking to attack its arguably most pressing issue for the future of the town, which is housing.
City Attorney Trish Stuhan also highlighted the potential speed of this project, suggesting that the streamlined process could lead to groundbreaking as soon as the coming summer. However, she cautioned that this timeline is still tentative and subject to change but the city is incredibly interested in being able to help provide an answer to the housing crisis that plagues much of the state but is especially dire in rural communities.
