Many people who live and work on Maine's 14 inhabited islands have a tough time during the summer months, when island populations are typically swelled by summer residents and vacationers. Island dwellers who do not own their own property often find rental costs increasing as much as four-fold between June and September. So they are forced to either rely on friends to accommodate them, or to live on the mainland. Recently, work has begun on a state-funded project to help address this problem.

This 100-year-old family home on the island of North Haven--one hour's ferry ride from Rockland--is getting a makeover. Over the next eight months, about 20 local construction workers will make the building habitable, and affordable. Roman Cooper is a building contractor on the island.

"The inside of it was all plaster. And it was literally falling off so we've had to literally gut the whole interior of the house. We've taken out all the plumbing, all of the electricial, everything right down to the bare bones," Cooper says. Once this has been done the renovation can begin. "New wiring, new plumbing, better insulation, things of that nature--putting in new windows."

How will it be made affordable? Like many Maine islands, North Haven's strengths are also its weaknesses: The stunning scenery and tranquil way of life that appeal to year-round residents also appeal to summer visitors, who swell the island's population of 400 to more than 1,000 at the height of the season. And, not surprisingly, the rent goes up. A family home can cost $1,500 a week to rent in July and August.

This problem confronted 30-year-old plumber Bill Trevaskis and his girlfriend Courtney Nalliboff. They moved here five years ago when Courtney got a job teaching at the community school--the only K-12 school in the Maine islands. "My girlfriend and I moved about four times during the summer, so that's four times during about two-and-a-half months," Trevaskis says. "And it was coming down to the point of we were going to have to either leave, or really beg someone to let us stay in their rental."

Eventually Bill and Courtney managed to find an affordable place to buy, with some help from the North Haven Sustainable Housing Committee, a non-profit set up to tackle the issue of affordable housing on the island.

This latest initiative is part of a state-wide program to set up affordable rental housing units on the islands. By May 2012 this property on North Haven will have been turned into a duplex: two energy-efficient dwellings, each available for a local working family to move into.

The rent will be around $700 a month--every month, with heat included. After 15 years, the renters will have an option to purchase the property. The exact criteria for those wishing to apply have not yet been fully established, but island resident and former state legislator Hannah Pingree says they're looking for people who understand the unique nature of island life.

Pingree is on the board of the North Haven Sustainable Housing Committee, which is overseeing the project. "Our goal is to have families living in these houses," Pingree says. "Maine State Housing has set a critieria that people must be within 120 percent of median-area income, which essentially means they're looking for families who are working to live in these projects. It's not a low-income project, it's a real year-round housing opportunity for working families."

For single mother-of-two Jessie Hallowell, this is an appealing option. "I'm so hopeful for this because on a teacher's salary or a chef's salary it's hard to afford to buy a house right now, and so renting some place would be ideal," Hallowell says.

Hallowell moved onto North Haven--where her father is prinicipal of the island school--last summer, after working as a teacher in Portland for the previous eight years. She now works in the kitchen of the Nebo Lodge Inn and Retaurant, the island's only hotel. "To keep a community really vital you need new people coming in and families to keep the school going, and when you have so much turnover it becomes kind of unmanageable," she says. "But when people can come and stay it really keeps the community alive."

Hallowell has lived a fairly itinerant existence since moving onto the island, staying with various friends and family members when summer comes. But with two small children to care for, she wants a more permanent home. "It would be great--I mean, just to have a place to be and to settle and to stay. My son is starting school this year and I just feel like it's time for him not to be moving so much, and, yeah, it would be wonderful."

Most of the $450,000 cost of the duplex--$350,000 of it to be exact--is being met by MaineHousing, also known as Maine State Housing, the state agency that deals with affordable housing issues. The rest came from other sources, including local fund raising efforts. MaineHousing has about $2 million available in funds going towards projects like these, aimed at establishing year-round, sustainable communities on the islands.

Other islands are following the lead of North Haven. In nearby Isle Au Haut, for example, design work is underway on two family homes with the help of a $350,000 MaineHousing grant. Ellard Taylor is chairman of the Isle Au Haut Community Development Corporation, a non-profit similar to the one in North Haven. He spends much of the year in North Haven, however, as his two sons attend the high school there.

Taylor says the key challenge for Isle Au Haut is to try and grow the population by attracting young families to come and live on the island. "The Isle Au Haut is community is down to a winter year-round population of probably in the vicinity of 40 people, which is really quite low, and we only have three students now in the K through 8 school," Taylor says.

Currently, seven of Maine's islands have applied for, or are in the process of applying for, funding under the Affordable Housing Initiative.

For more information, visit: http://isleauhaut.org/

and http://www.mainehousing.org/news/news-details?PageCMD=NewsByID&NewsID=479