Access to affordable housing has become a pervasive problem in the U.S. over the last several decades, a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nationally, roughly 31% of households are considered cost burdened, meaning more than 30% of income goes towards housing. In Maine as of 2023, that percentage of households was over 40%, well above the national average.
In their recent symposium, Maine Law’s three student-run journals decided to confront issues of affordable housing and homelessness from legal and policy standpoints. The journals, the Maine Law Review, Student Journal of Information Privacy Law, and Ocean and Coastal Law Journal each issued an edition dealing exclusively with housing concerns. Their publication culminated in the A Place to Call Home symposium on April 4, which invited authors of the articles to speak about their pieces and field questions from the nearly 100 attendees.
Greg Payne, Senior Advisor on Housing Policy for the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future offered some opening remarks to kick off the event. He spoke about the need for the housing crisis to be addressed from a variety of angles as the issue itself is complex and intersectional. Most of all, he added, Maine and the rest of the country need dedicated individuals committed to working in this sector.
“We need advocates,” Payne continued. “We are not hopeless but we need people with fire in their bellies who can stand and meet the moment and advocate on behalf of the people that really need them.”
The panels that followed were full of just such individuals.
The day was divided into three panels that address three discreet policy areas: Housing Instability and Homelessness, Equity & Privacy in Novel Housing Policy Issues, and Eviction and Tenants’ Rights. Experts came from as far away as Texas, like St. Mary’s University School of Law Professor Greg Zlotnick, and as nearby as the faculty offices of Maine Law, like Professor Deborah Johnson.
his issue could not be more important to Maine and the nation right now,” Maine Law President and Dean Leigh Saufley said. “This first-of-its-kind symposium is a wonderful example of why the people of Maine can be proud of Maine Law. The opportunity of Maine Law students and graduates to be problem-solvers around this issue is really what lawyering is all about.”
