Expanding Affordable Housing in Maine

Expanding Affordable Housing in Maine governor-sam Fri, 08/21/2026 - 14:00 August 21, 2026 Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills, and thank you for listening. You know, we want every person at every stage of their life to be confident they can rent or buy a home that's the right size for their family and for their budget and be able to stay there as long as they want. No one should be afraid that a sudden rent increase will break their budget or that someone will buy the land right out from under them and raise rents. When Hidden Circle Mobile Home Park in Jay went up for sale, that's exactly what the residents were afraid of: someone hiking up the rent and eventually pushing people out of their homes. According to the 2024 data, nearly 10 percent of Maine people live in manufactured housing, including mobile home communities. Forty-five thousand people in Maine live in a mobile home park. Out-of-state companies have started buying up some of Maine's mobile home parks and then significantly raising rents, in some cases as high as 50 percent. And rent increases don't necessarily mean nicer parks either, no improvements necessarily. Corporations know that residents can't easily pick up