Woodfords Corner affordable housing project moves forward [Video]

PORTLAND, Maine — Plans for an affordable housing development that would bring dozens of new rental units to Portland’s Woodfords Corner neighborhood will move forward after the City Council voted on key funding for the plan Monday night.

$942,000 in affordable housing trust funds will go towards two phases of a proposal by the organization Community Housing of Maine to build 84 units for lower income renters and seniors at the site of the Woodfords Congregational Church.

The council also agreed to designate the property as a Tax Increment Financing District, allowing a portion of revenue created from future property tax (the site is currently part of a tax-exempt church) to go back into the project.

“This is critical,” Cullen Ryan, executive director of Community Housing of Maine, said just minutes before Monday’s …