News and Updates
2/14/23 - Today, we submitted testimony to the State of Maine's Housing Committee on the subject of cooperative housing in Maine. Testimony available to download here (PDF).
2/1/23 - The application for Blake & Walnut is now available online.
The development is the result of an investment partnership between the Raise-Op and Evernorth, a regional syndicator of affordable housing, with financing from MaineHousing. Lewiston Housing will provide property management services, and Raise-Op staff will provide the resident services.
These two buildings represent many groundbreaking achievements for Lewiston and the partners involved:
Applications for a home at Blake & Walnut will be available at Lewiston Housing beginning in the Fall of 2022. You can learn more about these new units, and how they compare to Raise-Op's existing housing, on our housing page.
2/14/23 - Today, we submitted testimony to the State of Maine's Housing Committee on the subject of cooperative housing in Maine. Testimony available to download here (PDF).
2/1/23 - The application for Blake & Walnut is now available online.
The development is the result of an investment partnership between the Raise-Op and Evernorth, a regional syndicator of affordable housing, with financing from MaineHousing. Lewiston Housing will provide property management services, and Raise-Op staff will provide the resident services.
These two buildings represent many groundbreaking achievements for Lewiston and the partners involved:
- These will be the first passive house certified buildings in Lewiston, a rigorous design standard for building operation regarding energy efficiency and air quality, the result of which is an extremely comfortable and healthy living environment for the residents, and a lower carbon footprint as the building demands less energy consumption.
- The first time that low-income residents of the Tree Street Neighborhood have programmed and designed new multi-unit apartment buildings from the very beginning of the design process. A process that served as a model for the City’s Choice Neighborhood Transformation Plan.
- The first open-source building design that will be shared with the City of Lewiston for the purposes of helping create more small-scale infill housing in the neighborhood that meets the goals of the Choice Neighborhood Transformation Plan. The design is meant to be easily adapted to any standard lot in the neighborhood.
- The first time a housing cooperative in Maine has served as the developer of housing that utilizes the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program as a financing mechanism. Given the complexity of LIHTC financing, and the unique nature of a housing cooperative, this has been a learning experience for all parties involved.
Applications for a home at Blake & Walnut will be available at Lewiston Housing beginning in the Fall of 2022. You can learn more about these new units, and how they compare to Raise-Op's existing housing, on our housing page.
