If there’s one thing Maine needs more of, it’s affordable housing.

With the influx of people moving here from out of state and the prices of everything rising at alarming rates, the cost of living in Maine has increased substantially.

We see construction all around town with companies building new luxury condos and apartments the working class could never afford, but where are the much-needed affordable housing units?

Affordable Housing in Maine

A school in Lewiston has been vacant for quite a while now and the town of Lewiston has big plans for its redevelopment.

News Center Maine covered the most recent meeting that happened on Tuesday, March 7, where Lewiston city councilors worked to move forward with the plan.

The plan? Turning the vacant Martel Elementary School into affordable housing units for seniors.

The city is considering selling the property to Lewiston Housing, which would result in the school's redevelopment project turning into 44 affordable housing units, which is a great use of the space.

The council voted to postpone the matter until April to provide Lewiston Housing more time to put together a timeline plan for the redevelopment but the ball has started rolling and the redevelopment should hopefully start in the near future.

This will be quite a big project, as I hope it does not resemble a depressing school whatsoever and hopefully they put a lot of care and love into the design for these seniors.

LOOK: Here's where people in every state are moving to most

Stacker analyzed the Census Bureau's 2019 American Community Survey data to determine the three most popular destinations for people moving out of each state.

READ ON: See the States Where People Live the Longest

Stacker used data from the 2020 County Health Rankings to rank every state's average life expectancy from lowest to highest. The 2020 County Health Rankings values were calculated using mortality counts from the 2016-2018 National Center for Health Statistics. The U.S. Census 2019 American Community Survey and America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2019 data were also used to provide demographics on the senior population of each state and the state's rank on senior health care, respectively.

Read on to learn the average life expectancy in each state.

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