Bangor, with a population of more than 33,000, lies on the Penobscot River in the central south of Maine. Bangor's economy has previously relied heavily on manufacturing and defense jobs, which have been declining in recent years. Expansion of air-oriented industry has resulted from the growth of Bangor International Airport, the closest major U.S. airport to Europe. Hundreds of thousands of visitors to Maine and the Maritime Provinces of Canada use Bangor as a transit point. Bangor's downtown and waterfront revitalization program aims to entice transit tourism to the city.
Bangor expects to use $1,345,000 in entitlements and $523,578 in program income to undertake efforts to increase affordable housing, evaluate and reduce lead-based paint hazards, reduce the effects of poverty, enhance public and private cooperation, improve the public housing environment, and address homelessness and other special needs.
Bangor's citizen participation plan includes holding public hearings to obtain citizen views. These meeting are held at times and in locations that permit broad participation, particularly by low- and moderate-income people and residents of neighborhoods and areas affected by the proposed activities in the Consolidated Plan. Bangor's plan also calls for full public access to community development program information and records from City Hall's Office of the Community Development Director.
A summary of the proposed plan will be published in one or more newspapers
of general circulation in Bangor no less than 30 days before the Consolidated
Plan or substantial amendments are submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development (HUD). Copies of the proposed plan or its amendments are
to be made available at the Bangor Public Library, the Community Development
Office, and the Health and Welfare Department office. All citizens are to be
given an opportunity to comment on the plan.
Between 1980 and 1990, Bangor's population increased by nearly 5 percent to 33,181. Except for the Hispanic-American population, which decreased by 43 percent to 211 persons, the remaining population segments experienced a population growth. The largest increase occurred among the Asian American and Pacific Islanders minority group, which grew by 265 percent, expanding this group's total population to 324 persons. African Americans increased 215 percent to 300 persons (still less than 1 percent of the population); Native Americans increased by 6.6 percent to 244; and whites increased by 3 percent.
The percentage of low- and moderate-income people in Bangor neighborhoods
ranges from a low of about 11 percent in a neighborhood near Eastern Maine
Medical Center, which has a large number of medical professionals, to a high of
about 95 percent in the Old Capehart public housing area, which is operated by
the Bangor Housing Authority. Only 3 of Bangor's 52 census block groups have
low- to moderate-income populations that exceed 75 percent of the total
population.
The Bangor area, like the rest of Maine, is emerging from a recession and entering into a period of slow growth. It is anticipated that Bangor will see signs of very slow economic growth during the next 10 years. However, Bangor's economic future is overshadowed by several area aspects described below.
By the end of 1994, Bangor's unemployment rate of 5.2 percent was lower than the State of Maine's 6.5 rate, a long-term trend that continues to hold. Yet these numbers do not fully reflect the underemployment that is suggested by the data relative to household incomes. The median household income in Bangor was $26,810, which is lower than those for both the region and the State.
The market value of real estate within the Bangor Center Municipal Development District in the downtown area has declined 6 percent in the past 5 years. The 1995 State valuations for the entire city dropped $14 million from 1994. This reduction in the property tax base must be reversed in order to maintain property tax revenues, adequately fund essential services, and maintain public infrastructure.
In the past the manufacturing sector in Maine was considered the foremost engine of economic growth, providing nearly one out of every two jobs in Maine. By 1970 Bangor's manufacturing employment base had decreased to 25 percent. The report "Long Range Economic Forecast to 2005" suggests that by the year 2005, the manufacturing sector will have diminished to 12.5 percent of the employment base. New jobs offsetting this decline tend to be in the service sector, where lower paying, part-time jobs are common.
Recent reductions in defense-related jobs in Bangor could translate to workforce reductions in the Over-the-Horizon Radar Control Center at Bangor International Airport and the Maine Air National Guard, which provides air refueling support for active duty Air Force commands. Other defense employers could be affected, such as the Brunswick Naval Air Station and Department of Defense Communication facilities at Cutler and Winter Harbor, which receive support from Bangor area businesses and use facilities at Bangor International Airport. A reduction in any of these workforces will have an impact on the greater Bangor region's economy.
Bangor has 2,512 renter and 898 owner households earning very low incomes (less than 50 percent of Bangor's median family income [MFI]). Census data indicate that 66 percent have housing problems. Among this category, 66.7 percent of minority households have housing problems, including 100 percent of small families. Of African-American households, 35 percent have housing problems, as do 38.5 percent of Hispanic-American households.
Of the small, related renter households with low incomes (between 51 and 80 percent MFI), 202 have housing problems. 194 households have cost burdens greater than 30 percent, while 11 have cost burdens greater than 50 percent. There are 54 large, related renter households experiencing housing problems. 37 households have cost burdens greater than 30 percent, while none have cost burdens greater than 50 percent. Of all other-income renter households, 323 have housing problems. 298 households have cost burdens greater than 30 percent, while 23 have cost burdens greater than 50 percent. There are 982 low-income homeowner households. 278 households have cost burdens greater than 30 percent, while 61 have cost burdens greater than 50 percent.
The incidence of overcrowded households, those with one or more persons per room, is relatively minor in Bangor, with only 4.2 percent of all very low-income and 2.8 percent of low-income households experiencing overcrowding.
Each year, 150 to 200 additional dwelling units become more than 40 years old and become potentially substandard because of the aging process. The number could increase because of deferred maintenance due to insufficient cash flow. If the projections are correct that 100 additional units become substandard each year and three-fourths of these are occupied by lower income households, then in a 5-year period, 350 to 400 lower income households could be living in substandard housing. Of the 4,078 substandard housing units suitable for rehabilitation, over half, or 2,344, are occupied by lower income households. Of these lower income households, 1,541 are renters. However, an additional 116 vacant units are suitable for rehabilitation.
Bangor has 6,491 owner-occupied units (45 percent of the housing inventory), 90 of which are vacant. The number of owner-occupied units increased 12 percent during the 1980s, while the population only increased 5 percent. The construction and sale of owner-occupied units has been sufficient to accommodate the needs of new homebuyers.
Housing starts during the 1980s have totaled 1,520 units. Ranging from a low of 38 housing unit starts in 1983 to a high of 396 starts in 1984, the annual average shows 152 units receiving building permits. Single-family housing development has been a relatively minor portion of the total housing development, which has devoted nearly two-thirds of its investment to multifamily rental housing. Currently, more than half of all occupied Bangor housing units are renter-occupied. That percentage of renter units is expected to grow significantly as the number of newly-developed multifamily units outpaces single-family housing development by a margin of more than three-to-one. This trend has serious implications for the city's land use, zoning, and infrastructure planning.
Among the 6,945 homeowner households in Bangor, about 6 percent have incomes of less than 30 percent of the city's MFI; 6.4 have incomes between 31 and 50 percent MFI; and 14.1 percent have incomes between 51 and 80 percent MFI. Minority homeowner households total 147. Of these households, 6 percent earn incomes of less than 30 percent MFI, while none earn incomes between 31 and 50 percent MFI, and 17 percent earn incomes between 51 and 80 percent of the MFI.
Among the 6,428 renter households, 23 percent have incomes of less than 31 percent of the MFI; 15 percent have incomes between 31 and 50 percent MFI; and 19 percent have incomes between 51 and 80 percent MFI. Of the 230 minority renter households, 19 percent have incomes less than 30 percent of the MFI, while 18 percent have between 31 and 50 percent of the MFI, and 22 percent have incomes between 51 and 80 percent MFI.
Bangor has 708 renter-occupied and 39 vacant 2-bedroom units, as well as 725 renter-occupied and 27 vacant 3-bedroom units affordable to very low-income households. There are 50 owner-occupied efficiency and 1-bedroom units, but no vacant units for sale in this category. In addition, there are 567 owner-occupied, 2-bedroom units, with 18 such units for sale. There are 414 owner-occupied, 3-bedroom units, but no affordable vacant units for sale to very low-income households. For low-income households, there are 33 affordable owner-occupied efficiency and 1-bedroom units. There are 368 owner-occupied, 2-bedroom units (3 for sale), and 1,221 owner-occupied, 3-bedroom units (7 for sale) that are affordable to low-income households.
The Greater Bangor Area Shelter (GBAS) is one of only two general homeless shelters in Bangor. During 1994 GBAS served 700 individuals, providing 6,818 bed nights of shelter for an average of 18.7 nights per individual. During a recent 6-month period, 14 percent of the shelter's guests were either married couples, single parents, parents with children.
In 1994 Shaw House, with a capacity for about 15 people, sheltered homeless children and adolescents, providing 4,460 bed nights to about 505 different individuals. Other shelters include: Hope House, a shelter and treatment center which provided 5,508 bed nights in 1994; Spruce Run Shelter for Battered Women, which sheltered 59 women and 80 children in 1994; and the Bangor Rescue Mission, which served homeless men by operating a farm in the adjoining town of Hampden, where men work in exchange for shelter.
GBAS and the Hope House conduct outreach activities to identify unsheltered individuals and encourage them to use the shelter facilities. Over time, these outreach visits and police patrol contacts typically identify approximately one dozen unsheltered homeless individuals. Recent visits identified 17 unsheltered individuals in Bangor.
Every month in Bangor, between 200 and 250 households apply for and meet the eligibility criteria for General Assistance for the payment of rent. These are very low-income households whose income is not sufficient to pay their monthly rent. To preclude their eviction for nonpayment of rent and subsequent homelessness, General Assistance pays a portion of their rent, which is about 30 percent of the household income. Thus, there are a number of households each month threatened with homelessness.
Bangor has 567 public housing units located in 4 projects. Of these, 507 are family units, while 60 are elderly and handicapped-accessible or adaptable units. There are 60 1-bedroom elderly units, 213 2-bedroom family units, and 291 3-bedroom family units. Housing units are filled as soon as they become vacant.
Bangor has 840 Section 8 assisted units. Of these, 532 are elderly units, while 364 are family units. All tenant-based rental certificates or vouchers are used, and none are expected to be lost from the assisted housing inventory. Bangor has 184 other-assisted housing units, none of which are estimated to be vacant. There are 232 people on the waiting list for public housing and 393 on the waiting list for Section 8 assistance.
Barriers exist primarily on the Federal and State level. Public policies at the Federal level are of concern to Bangor because they affect the affordability of both rental and homeowner housing opportunities nationwide. Capital resources for increased production of assisted units has decreased steadily. Unless units for low-income households are preserved outside the private market, subsidies that are continued solely through rent certificates and vouchers will remain more expensive, and the goal of preserving the Nation's low-income housing stock will become difficult to achievable. As evidenced by comparing identified resources for capital development against services development, the difficulty arises whenever services funding relies heavily on local sources which cannot keep pace with housing development or with the needs of people in existing housing.
Bangor is taking steps to reduce the continued erosion of its property tax base which resulted from the State's conversion of privately owned taxable housing to tax-exempt housing. This is managed by transferring ownership to tax-exempt nonprofits, except whenever financing terms or mechanisms create sufficient after-debt-service cash flow which enables the nonprofit to offer the municipality a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes. This policy is permitted under Maine law and the local property tax in order to protect the primary source of local revenue from continued erosion, which limits the city's ability to adequately support essential services without imposing an unacceptable tax burden on the remaining taxable property. Currently, slightly more than half of the city's total appraised property valuation is tax exempt.
The city will put forth efforts to remove barriers to housing opportunities which relate to race, religion, ethnicity, familial status, age, sex, and disability. It will develop a fair housing plan, including: an analysis of fair housing impediments; identifying actions to implement fair housing; and followup activities that involve implementing specific actions, establishing timeframes for activities, and documenting action and results.
The city will also develop an appropriate mechanism for responding to complaints as well as an education program for property owners and managers, the business and real estate community, tenant organizations, and special population groups.
Approximately 750 children in Bangor have been screened for blood-lead poisoning since the beginning of the city's Lead Poisoning Prevention Project. Of these 15 children had blood-lead levels in the action level range of 20 micrograms per deciliter or above. Housing units where lead-based paint may exist in unacceptable conditions were identified on the basis of blood-lead levels in children. Using a team approach, each family's needs are identified, and a care plan is developed.
The city has used the local media to encourage testing of children. Newspaper articles have been published and television interviews have been broadcast about the hazards of lead-based paint. Additional projects have been planned, including: an educational program offered for retail stores; increased awareness efforts; a screening project with the Women, Infants, and Children Program; and educational efforts with professionals.
Although Bangor provides a variety of residential care facilities for severely mentally ill people, nearly all of these facilities have waiting lists longer than its capacity because of Maine's policies concerning deinstitutionalization. As a result, more patients are released than can be accommodated by existing facilities. Simultaneously, funds to support the operation of existing facilities have been reduced at both the Federal and State levels.
People with mental retardation or developmental disabilities have seven facilities that provide supportive care, training, and housing. The severely mentally ill and people with alcohol or other drug addictions have access to a six-bed residential facility. There are more individuals on the facility's waiting list than the facility's capacity. Another facility provides outpatient support services and helps people find housing in the community.
The Eastern Maine AIDS Network (EMAN) provides case management and support services, including assistance in locating its clients affordable housing. Because some people fear the risk of contracting AIDS, many families and apartment owners are reluctant to house an AIDS victim. There is an ongoing effort to develop a supportive care housing facility for EMAN's clients; however, attempts to secure funding have been unsuccessful.
The city has identified community development needs that focus primarily on Bangor's economic future. One example is developing a desirable urban environment and a favorable economic climate for commercial and industrial activities through a system of balanced land uses. Bangor also wants to develop a stable, progressive economic development program by promoting diversification of its economic base.
Bangor needs additional retail and services development. Some additional land for commercial development exists, but high land development funding for road and utility construction will be required to further open up these areas. Except for Union Street and the Hogan Road and Stillwater Avenue area, Bangor's existing business streets offer little opportunity for expansion.
Continuing redevelopment efforts in the central business district are needed for several large vacant buildings. The business development loan program designed to attract and assist private development and improvement projects that benefit the downtown and local economy also need to be continued.
Land planning, capital improvements, development, and marketing are required to reposition Bangor as a distribution center. After losing larger firms through closures or consolidations, the city needs to expand its small-building industrial park space in order to attract new, smaller wholesale, distribution, freighting, research, and manufacturing companies.
Over the past several years, Bangor has grown as a collection and distribution terminal for domestic air service. However, the city needs to establish the Bangor air facility as a collection-distribution point for regularly scheduled transatlantic flights. A realistic alternative business activity to the airport's charter passenger business is the creation of an air cargo collection, consolidation, and distribution center for regularly scheduled air cargo flights. This development may require both airport cost incentives for the carriers and means to finance guarantees for freight space.
Bangor has potential to provide seaport services and development. However,
the promotion of the existing free trade zone at Bangor is necessary for this
effort to succeed. The city should continue to cooperate fully with both
Eastport and Searsport developments, and to offer use of the free trade zone
with subzones located at either one or both of these ports.
The significant elements of the 5-year strategic plan include: continuing to conserve and preserve the current housing stock, providing suitable and adequate affordable housing, reducing deterioration in neighborhoods, preserving the property tax base, and eliminating blight and improving the living environments. The city also hopes to increase the availability of rental assistance for very low-income households. Through new construction and rehabilitation, Bangor hopes to create additional affordable housing units that serve low-income and special needs populations.
Bangor's high priorities for allocating Federal, State, local, and private resources for the next 5 years will focus on the needs of very low-income and other low-income households. Those priorities are listed below.
Activities to increase affordable housing for elderly one- and two-member renter households include:
Activities to increase the availability of housing for large, related renter households include:
Activities to provide assistance to homeless adults, youth, and families include:
The city has a number of community development objectives designed to improve the general living conditions of the residents of Bangor. They include the following:
The purpose of these strategies is to reduce the detrimental impacts of poverty on the citizens' quality of life and on the economic well-being of Bangor. The city plans to develop mechanisms that deliver social services and make jobs accessible to those living in or threatened by poverty. This includes support of a Family Self-Sufficiency program which offers job-related education and training services, intensive case management to homeless people recovering from substance abuse, and finance for youth job training.
In addition to Federal resources, the city can also draw from other resources. One such resource is the rehabilitation construction loan financing by the Bangor Community Development Program. This allows the city to use large amounts of limited funds for short periods of time, while enabling the public funds to leverage large amounts of private funds necessary to implement projects which the Community Development Program could not permanently finance alone.
The Community Development Division of the Community and Economic Development Department is responsible for implementing the Consolidated Plan. However, valuable input into this plan is provided by: the city of Bangor's Health and Welfare Department, Economic Development Division, Public Services Department, Code Enforcement Division, Planning Division, Parks and Recreation Department, Engineering Division, School Department, Airport Department, Bangor Adult Education, Fire Prevention Bureau, and the Police Department.
Participants in the communitywide outreach process define needs, inventory
resources, and establish enduring lines of communication, cooperation, and
coordination. Major participants include: the Bangor Housing Authority, Bangor
Housing Community Action Team, Shalom Zone Committee, Bangor Area Housing
Alliance, Shelter Plus Care Coordinating Committee, Transitional Advisory Group,
Pine Tree Legal Assistance, and 57 nonprofit providers of housing and related
services.
Bangor expects to have the available resources to undertake planned activities that will advance affordable housing, evaluate and reduce lead-based paint hazards, reduce the effects of poverty, enhance public and private cooperation, improve the public housing environment, and address homeless and other special needs. The key projects for 1995 include the following:
Responsibility for developing this plan and coordinating its implementation rests with the Community Development Division of the Community and Economic Development Department.
MAP 2 depicts points of interest and low-moderate income areas.
MAP 3 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, and minority concentration levels.
MAP 4 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, and unemployment levels.
MAP 5 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, unemployment levels, and proposed HUD funded projects.
MAP 6 is a map, sectioned by neighborhood, which depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, unemployment levels, and proposed HUD funded projects.
MAP 7 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, unemployment levels, and proposed HUD funded projects within one of the four neighborhoods indicated in MAP 6.
MAP 8 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, unemployment levels, and proposed HUD funded projects within another of the four neighborhoods indicated in MAP 6.
MAP 9 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, unemployment levels, and proposed HUD funded project(s) from a street level vantage point; in addition, a table provides information about the project(s).
