Affordable housing advocates are backing a measure in the State House to give up to $80 million in tax incentives to double the number of low-income housing units built in Maine over the next four years. The bill would give developers access to refundable tax credits to finance the construction of  low-income housing. The bill,

Maine’s rigorous new testing standards for lead poisoning in children has resulted in additional inspections of dwellings for lead paint, and those inspections have led to more lead hazards being discovered and removed, according to recently published research. In 2015, Maine approved a law that reduced the blood test threshold that triggers the household inspections

Steve Bowie thinks back to the two years he spent on Portland’s streets and remembers the feeling of hopelessness. For 28 months, he battled with a longtime addiction to alcohol and spent nights on floor mats at the city-run Oxford Street Shelter or at Milestone Recovery, a smaller shelter for people with substance use disorder.

Housing first is a philosophy that first emerged in the 1990s and has taken hold as a cost-effective way to reduce homelessness. In a more traditional approach, a homeless person would be given space in an overnight shelter while trying to find work or get sober or healthy enough to secure housing. But with housing

PARIS — For Carol Fanjoy, every room, hallway, nook and cranny of the newly renovated Fox School holds a memory. And those memories can be overwhelming. “The first day I got in, when I started the application process, the plumber let me in. I saw the front staircase, and I sat down — I actually