Aroostook County’s only shelter for the homeless is seeking a $150,000 loan from the city of Presque Isle to keep operating.
Homeless Services of Aroostook Executive Director Kari Bradstreet requested the loan to cover expenses for three months until the anticipated passage of state legislation that would fund Maine’s emergency shelters. Without those expected funds, Bradstreet previously warned that the shelter could have been forced to close.
Communities across Maine have struggled to handle the growing challenges of homelessness in recent years. The County facility is among many that have struggled because the federal funds that sustained them through the pandemic have ended.
Other facilities have faced their own troubles, with the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter looking at a $60,000 budget shortfall for next year and the Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter in Waterville seeking out loans.
Without money to operate, some shelters are at risk of closing, putting the most vulnerable Mainers at risk. It’s a dire situation, but a lifeline from Presque Isle could make the difference, Bradstreet said.
“This loan would give us the time that I and the board of directors need to explore all of our options, to see where we are lacking, and fill in the gaps,” she said Tuesday.
The loan would cover expenses for three months, including salaries, programs and overhead costs, she said. Homeless Services would repay the amount in full upon receipt of state funds if LD 698, An Act to Sustain Emergency Homeless Shelters in Maine, passes.
The bill, introduced in February by Sen. Rachel Talbot-Ross, would provide $5 million to Maine’s emergency shelters each fiscal year from the state general fund.
About 90 people submitted testimony for a March work session on the bill, including several Aroostook County residents, according to Maine legislative records.
The bill’s passage would increase shelter funding from the current $7 per bed night — the cost to house one person in one bed for one night — to $19, Homeless Services of Aroostook board member Karen Gonya wrote.
“It would be such a tremendous disservice to our region — which is bigger than the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined — to not have a homeless shelter,” Gonya stated. “While this is still just a portion of the actual cost, it will make a tremendous difference in helping to keep our doors open.”
Numerous other Aroostook residents and officials testified in favor of that state legislation.
Rural areas often don’t have enough social services, and closing the shelter would devastate the community, Presque Isle Police Chief Chris Hayes wrote. Besides housing people, shelters also link the homeless to critical mental health services that law enforcement can’t provide.
Presque Isle City Councilor Meg Hegemann, Northern Light A.R. Gould Hospital President Jay Reynolds, Cary Medical Center CEO Kris Doody and local attorney Sarah LeClair of Woodland also submitted testimony in support of the local shelter.
Homeless Services of Aroostook housed about 240 adults and children and provided 174,000 meals over the past year, according to Bradstreet. Presque Isle’s newly enlarged warming shelter served 97 people this winter.
Bradstreet said the organization is shifting its message from avoiding closure to seeking financial sustainability.
“We wanted people to know the seriousness, but we never wanted to close our doors or made that an option,” she said.
The Presque Isle City Council is expected to address the loan request at its May 7 meeting.
The group is also restructuring financially given the availability of all state, county and local funding sources, Bradstreet said. Part of that is exploring partnerships with such agencies as Preble Street of Portland, Catholic Charities Maine and the Presque Isle Housing Authority.
Partnerships would help sustain the operation in light of unpredictable federal and state funding, she said.
“We will not close our doors. Our doors are going to remain open; we just don’t know what that will look like at this time,” she said. “We want to make the best decision for our community, and we want to ensure that our mission lines up with any agency that we partner with.”
