Quincy Hentzel, CEO of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce, moderated a panel on how employers are addressing the housing crisis. Quincy emphasized the Chamber's prioritization of housing as a critical issue, surpassing even workforce development. She encouraged private businesses to engage in advocacy and solutions for increasing housing availability. This is how the three panelists have been addressing the housing crisis through their companies:
Brad Paige (President and CEO, Kennebunk Savings Bank):
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Facilitated the development of a 70-unit housing project by donating land and collaborating with Avesta Housing.
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Navigated zoning challenges and secured community and municipal support for the project.
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Barriers they faced included differing opinions on land use from the planning board (senior housing vs workforce housing vs industrial use) and skepticism from neighbors, who felt they had been blindsided and who mistrusted the intentions of the project.
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To win over neighbors, they held a public input meeting to engage them and explained they were giving half of the acreage to the Kennebunk Land Trust. They did a lot of work to convince them of the project’s charitable intentions.
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The bank stayed engaged through the entire project, going to meetings, visiting senior centers, visiting local rotaries, running local news stories–accomplishing the project required serious investment the whole way through.
Emily Schorer (Senior VP, Chief of Staff and Chief People Officer, Jackson Labs):
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Built 24 housing units for employees to address commuting challenges and workforce attrition.
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Because they did not want to be a landlord, they partnered with the Bar Harbor Housing Authority to manage the housing.
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The housing has been so successful that the turnover rate is less than 10%. This has resulted in a waiting list of over 50 people.
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Long-term concerns remain, such as the need to scale housing solutions, integrate employees into broader communities, and create pathways to homeownership. Her team is exploring partnerships to encourage development in surrounding areas.
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“There are other smaller businesses in the community that can't do [what we did], certainly not on their own. But their existence is very important to us because they create the community that our employees are looking for as well. So it's very important for Jax that the restaurant down the street stays in business, that the movie theater, that the schools, the healthcare system is all there. And so, not to overuse a term, but it truly does take a village, and you can't go it on your own. So I think businesses just have to accept the fact that, you know, when I said earlier, we don't want to be landlords, we don't want to be in the construction business. We need to focus on our mission. But we cannot ignore the issue. And we need to participate and partner with others for a larger, more sustainable solution.”
Chris Parker (President and CEO, Lighthouse Credit Union):
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Until recently, the company was known as Northeast Credit Union. They recently rebranded and focused on housing, food security, and education as core impact areas.
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Created innovative financial products, such as ADU loans, to support housing development.
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Founded a community impact foundation to fund housing-related initiatives.
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The credit union has a vision to put 50,000 individuals in stable housing within the next five years called Vision 2030. They do about 200 first-purchase mortgages every year, so it won’t be solved through mortgages alone. They have about an $80 million commercial loan portfolio now and plan to scale that about 30 to 40 percent over the next few years.
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Partnered with the Habitat for Humanity on land donations and partnered with a developer to explore the potential for a tiny home development behind their Dover branch.
The conversation concluded with a call to action for businesses to engage, share their experiences, and be proactive in finding solutions. The panelists encouraged developers to reach out to businesses for partnerships and use organizations like Chambers of Commerce as resources to connect with stakeholders and overcome obstacles, particularly in infrastructure development.
A final piece: During the conversation, Chris mentioned that he was "from away," which led Quincy to say: “The last time I checked, we had a state economic plan that requires us to attract, like, 75,000, 80,000 people to Maine just to maintain the status quo. And if we keep calling people “from away,” like, that is, like, the least welcoming thing to say to someone who is not from Maine but who has made the choice to be in Maine. So we're chucking that out the window, and we're never saying that again. And welcome to Maine.”