The City of Caribou is working to improve housing options and costs in its efforts to develop a Housing Needs Assessment & Action Plan.
How We Got Here:
After doing community outreach, it was determined that the City of Caribou needed to do a Housing Study to determine what kind and how much new housing is needed, what type of housing is needed, and for who. On March 4, 2024, the City applied for a Municipal Grant to assist with the development and cost of the housing study through the Maine Department of Economic & Community Development (DECD). The City was sent a letter on October 7, 2024 that our application was a high scoring application and a “conditional contract” was awarded. Upon further discussion with DECD, a full contract was executed and the City issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) in July. The winning bidder was Matrix Design Group, which has ample experience in data collection, analysis, graphics, mapping, and policy related to housing and land use, which will help the City greatly in this effort.
Project Updates
The project kickoff and initial public meeting was held on November 18th at 5PM in City Council Chambers. Matrix provided the below attachments explaining what a Housing Needs Assessment is, key findings on demographic and housing market information in Caribou, images for residents to react to for types of housing they might want to see, and an activity to explore potential policy solutions. Those can all be viewed below:
For more information, please contact Economic & Community Development Specialist, Eric Sanderson at esanderson@cariboumaine.org or (207) 498-5096.
The City of Caribou’s full application can be viewed here.
Media coverage of this planning project: