Rent prices in southern Maine are completely out o...

Rent prices in southern Maine are completely out of control. Many of us who work full time have no choice but to apply for affordable housing because market rate apartments in Portland now cost the same as they do in major cities elsewhere in America. Unfortunately for us, Avesta has a near monopoly on affordable housing in southern Maine. They know this and it shows. I have been in this apartment for 4 years and I am still waiting for them to fix things I reported 4 years ago. Every year they do an annual inspection and they point out the problems and say "how come you didn't report this?" and I say "I DID report it, I reported it last year, and the year before, and the year before..." but I guess they don't keep records of these things. They write it down on the clipboard but who knows where it goes after that. There has been a new property manager every year for the 4 years I've been here. They hire property managers off the street with no property management experience. One year on the job and Avesta promotes them to senior or regional manager. Two or three years on the job and they get promoted to director or VP. It's no wonder the company is so poorly run. I'm giving them 2 stars because frankly it IS better than being homeless and anyone who says they'd rather be homeless than live here is full of it. It just sucks that Avesta treats us like we should be grateful for any little scraps they toss our way. But this isn't only Avesta's fault, it's the fault of market rate landlords who raise their rents so high that more and more of us have no choice but to apply for housing with Avesta, and it is the fault of local and state politicians who refuse to do anything about high rents and low wages. They create or perpetuate the conditions that allow Avesta to treat us this way.