Editor’s note: The author’s hometown has been helped to protect the safety of herself and her child.

Upon moving home to Maine, I never could have imagined how drastically the housing crisis would impact my life. Lack of affordable housing is a nightmare for too many Maine families, a nightmare my young child and I have been living for the past nine months.

Last summer, I found myself unhoused as a result of domestic abuse. I joined the thrones of other Mainers desperately searching an overcrowded housing market. Unable to find safe and stable housing, my child and I luckily got into a domestic violence shelter.

Thanks to a project-based housing voucher and Mainers who look out for each other, my child and I are successfully, safely and affordably rehoused. Stories like ours are all too common, and it is time legislators took bold action. Young Mainers, like my child, are the most vulnerable, and we need to do it for them and their future.

We can protect them with legislation to help end the housing crisis – bills like LD 484, to fund affordable housing, and LD 473, to increase low-income housing vouchers. By establishing affordable housing goals for service center communities with LD 1673. We can go even further by passing LD 2003, to create more units within existing zoning and land use laws, giving every town in Maine the chance to say that their “local character” means homes for children.

Everyone deserves a safe, warm, affordable and stable home. Legislators must act to ensure there’s enough housing for everyone who needs it.

Hazel Willow

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