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V O L . X X V I I I N O. I X M AY 2 , 2 0 2 2 6 the workforce, 28% are disabled, and 33% are seniors. e annual income needed to afford a two-bedroom rental home at the Housing and Urban Development's fair market rent is $44,488. N O T E W O R T H Y S T A T E W I D E Maine Development Foundation's Maine Downtown Center awarded a total of $656,789 through its REvitalizeME Gen2 National Park Service Sub-grant program for four historic preservation projects involving historic downtown buildings in Maine. Recipients included Bag Mill, Rumford, $248,560; Old Hancock County Sheriff's Home and Jail, Ellsworth, $200,000; Colonial Theater, Augusta, $160,229; and Porter Memorial Library, Machias, $48,000. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins announced that the state of Maine received a to- tal of $3.7 million to help families and individuals afford to heat their homes. The funding was awarded through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and was authorized through the Fiscal Year 2022 government funding omnibus that was signed into law in March. Gov. Janet Mills announced that the Community Resilience Partnership, a program of the Governor's Office of Policy Innovation and the Future to help Maine communities with lo- cal climate action plans to become more resilient against climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, awarded a total of $2.5 million in grant funding to 75 com- munities across the state to help fight climate change. B U S I N E S S M A I N E Business news from around the state (207) 829-5549 MainLineFence.com When the safety and security of your business is at stake, a good fence is one you can count on. Maine's rate of home foreclosures surges B y W i l l i a m H a l l The number of home foreclosures in Maine jumped by nearly a quarter last quarter. A total of 373 properties across the state had foreclosure filings between Jan. 1 and March 31, or 1 of every 1,981 housing units, according to ATTOM, a national real estate tracking company. The total represents a 23.1% increase over the last three months of 2021 and an 81.1% increase over Q1 of that year. Maine's foreclosure rate ranks 17th-highest in the U.S. and third-highest in the Northeast. Only New Jersey, No. 2, and Connecticut, No. 14, ranked higher in the region. Foreclosures have been rapidly increasing since the federal government ended an emergency moratorium on them in July 2021. In the following quarter, Maine's foreclosure rate was 1 of every 3,520 housing units, less than the current level but giving the state the same ranks it now holds, according to ATTOM. However, the new numbers show Maine is faring better than the U.S. as a whole. Properties with a foreclosure totaled 78,271 nationwide during the first quarter of 2022, of 1 of every 1,795 homes. That total is up 39% from the previous quarter and 132% from a year ago. "Foreclosure activity has continued to gradually return to normal levels since the expiration of the government's mora- torium," said ATTOM Executive Vice President Rick Sharga. "But even with the large year-over-year increase in foreclo- sure starts and bank repossessions, foreclosure activity is still only running at about 57% of where it was in Q1 2020, the last quarter before the government enacted consumer protection programs due to the pandemic." ATTOM based its report on a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing, includ- ing default notifications, auction proceedings and bank repossessions. Data was collected from more than 3,000 counties nationwide. The state with the highest foreclosure rate last quarter was Illinois, and the lowest rate was recorded in South Dakota. P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F H U B Z U B R I E F This three-bedroom house in Auburn was in foreclosure and scheduled for auction. Report: Maine needs 20,000 affordable housing units Maine needs 20,000 affordable housing units to meet the needs of its lowest-income residents, accord- ing to a report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition. ere are just 51 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 of the lowest-income renter households in Maine. Nearly 60% of the poorest renter households in Maine are spending more than half of their incomes on housing, with little left over for other basic neces- sities, the report said. Across Maine, there are 39,716 renter households that are considered extremely low income with a maximum income of $26,200 for a four-person household. One-quarter of those renters are in S T A T E W I D E

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