Some of that is changing. “It’s a really big worry,” Hobbs said. “You cannot have a strong and prosperous economy without affordable housing.”You cannot have a strong and prosperous economy without affordable housing. “There are people who want to work, who want to be here — want to live here, want to be part of the businesses that are here — who are struggling to find the housing,” she said. Landwehr worries about sustaining the “diversity of the population” needed to power the economy and keep the area desirable for both residents and visitors if the problem deepens: “We’ll start to see kind of a division, if you will, of who’s here.”

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Persons: “, ” Hobbs, Kelsi Hobbs, Shannon Landwehr, ”, Landwehr Organizations: TD Bank, University of Maine, Regional Chamber of Commerce Locations: Maine, Rockland, Penobscot, who’s