PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Ten years ago Leslie Smart and her family were renting a house in Presque Isle when their landlord said they had to leave because the landlords’ son wanted to live in the home.
The Smart family turned to the Presque Isle Housing Authority and have since lived in a subsidized apartment in the public housing section that has allowed them to financially save for the future and find a community that they say is one of the friendliest in Presque Isle.
“When you’re living paycheck to paycheck, having rent that’s based on your income and includes your electricity and heat makes things a lot easier,” Smart said. “They even take care of those extra expenses like garbage and snow removal.”
Smart and her husband Fred have four children, whose ages range from 12 to 15. The family’s long-term goal is to eventually purchase their own home. While Fred works full time as a cook at Riverside Inn Restaurant in Presque Isle, Smart has been a stay-at-home mother since their son Frederick, now 13, was diagnosed with high-functioning autism and obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, in fifth grade.
Though staying home has meant putting off her family’s goal of owning a home, Smart said that living in public housing has allowed her the chance to homeschool Frederick and be there for him and his siblings while they’re growing up.
“We never could have afforded a house or another type of apartment on my husband’s salary,” Smart said. “Unfortunately, we have to rely on just his salary again, but having a more stable rent has helped us to figure out what is possible for us.”
The realities of expensive rental costs have affected many families in central Aroostook County, said Jennifer Sweetser, executive director of the Presque Isle Housing Authority. Subsidized apartments take into consideration 30 percent of tenants’ incomes when calculating yearly rent while “market rate” apartments offer a flat rent option for people whose incomes are higher than the market rate for apartment rents.
The average rent for Housing Authority tenants within public housing is $327.77 per month for one-bedroom apartments, $373.05 for two-bedroom apartments, $455.23 for three-bedroom apartments and $377.67 for four-bedroom apartments. Sweetser said that 44 families are currently on the waiting list for two-bedroom apartments while there are 15 on the three-bedroom list and three on the four-bedroom list.
Presque Isle Housing Authority has three income levels that people can qualify under to obtain public housing apartments — low income, very low income and extra low income. Depending on how many rooms they’re looking for, families’ annual incomes can range from $36,300 to $51,850 to qualify for the low-income level, $22,700 to $32,400 for very low income or $13,650 to $25,750 for extra low income.
“We used to see a lot of single parents or widows who couldn’t earn enough money — even those who are working — can’t earn enough money to pay for a car, rent or childcare,” Sweetser said.
Housing Authority staff members have seen increases in adults with disabilities and elderly tenants who end up on public housing apartment wait lists due to not being able to find other accessible housing options.
Sweetser noted that a common misperception of public housing is that most tenants rely on “food stamps,” more formerly known in the state of Maine as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF. In fact, only 12 tenants who live in some of the 185 public housing apartments in Presque Isle receive TANF funds.
“For the 102 individuals who report wages, they reported a total of $2 million worth of wages this year,” Sweetser said. “Many people are surprised to hear that because they assume everyone is here collecting money from the state.”
Ariana Myshrall, a tenant who lives in Presque Isle Housing Authority public housing with her fiance Jesse Park and their 16-month-old daughter Calli, agrees with Sweetser’s statements. She also said that stereotypes of public housing neighborhoods being where the “bad people” live are not true.
“When I was growing up people thought of this place as where you’d never want to live because it was where the ‘not-so-good people’ were,” said Myshrall, who has been a tenant for six months. “But when you actually come here you learn that this is not the bad part of town. You enter into a community that gives you a stepping stone to get you where you want to go.”
Currently Myshrall is enrolled in a healthcare academy class at Northern Light A.R. Gould Hospital that will qualify her for entry-level administrative positions at the Presque Isle hospital. She has been staying home to care for Calli, but hopes to soon re-enter the workforce and help provide for her family. Park works in the kitchen at the Ruby Tuesday’s restaurant at the Aroostook Centre Mall.
Both Myshrall and Smart spent brief periods of their childhoods living in the Housing Authority’s public housing apartments. They remember always playing outside with neighborhood children and feeling a sense of safety.
The one thing that has changed for the better, they said, is how the Housing Authority has connected with community partners. For the past three summers, Wintergreen Arts Center has offered art classes in the neighborhood. The Housing Authority also has established a community garden, hosted free “community closets” with United Way of Aroostook during the back-to-school shopping season and recently held their first Tasty Options Market.
Myshrall said that the close-knit community vibe has already allowed her to form friendships with neighbors.
“I’ve met a few women with children close to Calli’s age. It’s nice to go outside and have people to talk with,” Myshrall said. “Seeing Calli get excited when she sees other children has been great.”
Despite the challenges that brought her family to public housing, Smart noted that living in the Housing Authority neighborhood has given them a sense of safety and financial security as well as community connections.
“I asked my kids one day whether they missed living in a house and my oldest daughter said, ‘Mom, this was the best place that we could’ve grown up in,’” Smart said.
