How a Data Center Derailed $240,000 for Affordable Housing in a Rural Area

How a data center derailed $240,000 for affordable housing in a rural area

The Daily Yonder reports that a proposed data center derailed $240,000 in affordable housing funding in Wiscasset, Maine, raising concerns over lost opportunities.

Lure of data center derails needed housing project in rural Maine

On a crisp afternoon in early April 2026, Richard Davis walked to the end of a boat launch on the Back River, a tidal channel that cuts through Midcoast Maine’s rocky coastline. As the tide swept in, Davis, co-founder of a local group called Protect Wiscasset and an area resident, fixed his attention on the opposite riverbank. There, a 300-acre parcel of land, mostly covered by evergreen trees, is the subject of a decades-long debate that’s spar…