June 13: Housing complex planned for aging members of Maine's LGBTQ+ community
The Equality Community Center has a campaign to build a 54-unit affordable housing complex tailored toward the LGBTQ+ community. The Equality Community Center has raised $3 million in capital so far.
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June 13: Portland residents make voices heard about city's growing homelessness crisis
On Tuesday, the City of Portland heard from Portland residents about the growing number of homeless encampments around the city. The city council approved a new emergency shelter expected to house 180 asylum seekers in the Riverton neighborhood.
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June 13: Portland voters reject rent control changes
RHA President, Brit Vitalius, was interviewed by News Center Maine regarding this week's referendum vote, "Ironically, this result most punishes small mom-and-pop landlords who will exit the market leaving only large corporate landlords and conversions to condos, all of which reduced options for renters."
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June 13: Portland voters decide to keep current rent control ordinance
RHA President, Brit Vitalius, was interviewed by Fox 23 regarding this week's referendum vote, "The issue is we need good housing policy," Vitalius said. "Good policy is ultimately good for tenants and for landlords. And what we have right now is suffocating the housing market, which is going to bad for tenants in the long run."
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June 14: Landlords, tenant advocates react to defeat of referendum to weaken rent control
RHA President, Brit Vitalius, was interviewed by WMTW regarding this week's referendum vote, "It was an overwhelming victory for the socialists and their version of housing policy in Portland," said Brit Vitalius, the president of the Rental Housing Alliance of Southern Maine, which put the referendum forward. "We're disappointed that housing policy is discussed in terms of tenants versus landlords, and landlords are seen as part of the problem. We'd like to be part of the solution."
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June 14: Portland voters keep current rent control rules, opponents call it 'socialism'
RHA President, Brit Vitalius, was interviewed by WGME regarding this week's referendum vote, "Unfortunately, I think a lot of the smaller landlords are going to leave the market," Rental Housing Alliance President Brit Vitalius said. "This was meant to be a policy change that we thought both sides could support, but instead, the narrative was tenants versus greedy landlords, must be bad, throw it out."
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June 15: Vacant Portland office building to become housing
Ocean Gate LLC is turning a former office building at 511 Congress St. into a 107-unit housing complex, including 27 affordable units. Construction is expected to take 18 months and start in early 2024.
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