Early in her tenure as town manager, Dawn DiBlasi stopped at a Skowhegan street corner to speak with a woman standing there with a sign that said she was homeless. “She said, ‘It just got so I couldn’t afford my rent anymore, and I don’t have anywhere to go,” DiBlasi said. There wasn’t much DiBlasi said she could do besides talking to the woman about getting on the years-long waiting list for a housing voucher.
Skowhegan is a working-class town, but there are just four rental units there on Zillow . All are listed for more than $1,000 per month, and home prices have more than doubled since 2019, according to real estate data listing . More affordable housing options might soon be in hand in a nostalgic location.
Last month, the planning board gave preliminary approval to a 30- to 40-unit mobile home park at the site of the former Skowhegan Drive-In Theater, bringing the 11-acre lot back into use after years of declining profits and paltry attendance forced the theater to close for good last fall. The screen is gone due to asbestos, although the structure that held it remains. The concession stand is up as well, serving as a reminder of the theater that opened in 1953 with a Morning Sentinel advertisement touting a state-of-the-art projection system and a playground for kids.
The redevelopment of the drive-in has brought up mixed emotions in the community, said 38-year-old Skowhegan resident Adam Burdick. Some of it is rooted in stigmas about mobile homes long note.