PORTLAND (WGME) – As Mainers struggle to find housing, there’s a new survey to try to help them.

It’s no secret finding fair, affordable housing in southern Maine is a challenge, leaving many Mainers stuck wishing there were better options.

Eli Seemann is a student at UNE who just moved to Maine in January.

It took him two months to find a place to live.

And while he would have preferred to live in Portland, he settled for a space in Biddeford.

“My current landlord hit me up and was like, ‘Hey, I got a room, you want one?’ Fantastic,” Seemann said.

Despite the commute, he says it’s worth it to save the money.

He wishes there were more resources for people like him.

“Specifically targeted towards students, because those are revolving houses, so it brings in income to the state and it’s new income every time,” Seemann said.

As part of an effort to come up with solutions, the Cumberland County Home Consortium just launched a survey.

“Often you hear stories and they’re somewhat anecdotal, and this survey can help us put real data and numbers behind some of the issues that we have,” Portland Interim Housing Economic Development Department Director Mary Davis said.

Davis says the goal is to come up with solutions to the housing crisis.

This survey and other outreach work they’re doing will help them figure out how to spend federal funds.

“I think we’re going to find some of what we’re seeing and what we’ve been talking about reinforced,” Davis said.

Hopefully, it will give Mainers more options.

“Capped income housing, I think that it would be a lot better, I think it would be a lot easier,” Seemann said.

As an incentive, if you complete the survey, you’ll be entered in to win a $100 Visa gift card.

You have until March 15.

The survey can be found here.