NORWAY— Officials from MaineHousing will hold a housing fair Dec. 8 for landlords and tenants of Section 8 housing at the Norway town office.

“It’s new,” MaineHousing spokeswoman Deborah Turcotte said of the housing fair idea.

Representatives from AVESTA, the firm that handles Section 8 housing for MaineHousing, will be attending, she said.

“The housing fair is our effort to bring individuals and families recently impacted by poor living accommodations in touch with landlords who may have housing available,” she said.

The action follows an announcement by MaineHousing late last month that it will stop paying rent for 14 tenants currently living in Section 8 apartments owned by longtime local landlord Madeline Pratt. The action was taken after allegations of substandard living conditions in some Norway-Paris Section 8 apartments surfaced in November.

Section 8 is the federal government’s major program for assisting very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market, according to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Housing vouchers are issued and administered locally by public housing agencies – in this case Portland-based AVESTA Housing.

AVESTA receives federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to administer the Section 8 voucher program in Oxford, Androscoggin, York and Cumberland counties.

Currently some 1,300 residents in these four counties are serviced under Section 8 by AVESTA. The need is many more times that, officials said.

The state severed its contract with Pratt, based on recent reinspections that turned up life safety violations in a number of Pratt’s 12 apartment buildings in Norway and Paris. At least 14 tenants are being relocated over a two-month period. More tenants may be affected as inspections continue to turn up violations.

Thursday’s housing fair will be held in two parts. From 6 to 7 p.m., there will be an opportunity for landlords who may have apartment vacancies to learn more about Section 8 and to get more information on the housing program from MaineHousing.

From 7 to 8 p.m. there will be a “meet and greet” for tenants and landlords.

“The second hour provides an opportunity for holders of Section 8 housing vouchers, including tenants who recently were issued new vouchers, to meet with prospective landlords,” Turcotte said.

The reinspections by the state began after a recent investigation by the Advertiser Democrat into allegations of locked secondary egresses and lack of smoke alarms. The probe was sparked by a rooming house fire in May that left 11 people homeless.

The newspaper report prompted an emergency meeting of state and local officials, tenants, landlords and other concerned residents on Nov. 4. The meeting focused on problems in Section 8 apartments and the role the state’s Housing Authority and AVESTA, the state’s agent, played in the situation. A local AVESTA inspector was fired as a result of the findings.

For more information, call MaineHousing at 626-4600.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link