SCARBOROUGH, Maine–The CEO of Town & Country FCU told the Maine Affordable Housing Conference here that the “cooperative model” is an option that needs to be leveraged.
Town & Country FCU CEO David Libby told the meeting, hosted by MaineHousing, during a session titled “Innovations in Home Ownership” of the successes and popularity of cooperatives in Maine and the role they can play in affordable housing.
“Housing, specifically affordable housing, is at a crossroads in Maine,” said Libby. “There is a growing demand combined with a lack of affordable housing and an aging housing stock that are factors that make it essential to explore new options. Cooperatives have a long history of bringing people together to find solutions to problems. As a cooperative ourself, Town & Country takes very seriously our role of cooperating to help and support other cooperatives. That’s why the title of this session, Innovations in Home Ownership, is very apropos. We believe that expanding the cooperative approach to affordable housing is an innovative approach that has proven successful on a smaller scale already but is worth exploring on a wider scope.”
Strength of Cooperatives
According to Town & Country, Libby cited the strength of cooperatives in Maine already covering a range of industries including financial, agriculture, fishing, daycares, housing and many others.
“Today, there are hundreds of thousands of Mainers that belong to a co-op and that number continues to grow each year. Currently, there are 12 housing cooperatives in Maine serving 500 families and that is just in the past few years,” said Libby. “Examples, such as Raise-Op in Lewiston, and several Maine-manufactured housing community housing co-ops demonstrate that the cooperative model is a viable option for affordable housing. We were the first cooperative to offer support and share knowledge to the Maine Cooperative Development Partners that is planning to build a new housing co-op project known as Lambert Woods in Portland. We look forward to being involved in this and other cooperative housing projects moving forward.”