PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The Presque Isle City Council wants more local communities to support The County’s only homeless shelter.
The group tabled a $150,000 loan request from Homeless Services of Aroostook on Wednesday, opting to have the agency and city staff seek other solutions, including asking for help from roughly 40 towns that don’t financially support the shelter.
Homeless Services of Aroostook Executive Director Kari Bradstreet requested the loan in light of funding shortfalls that she previously warned might leave the facility’s future uncertain. The loan would sustain operations until the expected passage of LD 698, which would help fund Maine’s emergency shelters. But other communities need to step up, councilors argued.
“Nobody wants to see the homeless shelter close. Nobody,” Council Chair Jeff Willette said. “So, I mean, hell or high water, the thing’s got to be operational. Some people have got to put some skin in the game here.”
Each year, Homeless Services sends out letters to every Aroostook municipality requesting $2 per resident, based on population, to support the shelter, Bradstreet said. This year the agency sent out 70 requests totaling $135,000, and 30 communities gave a combined $46,000.
It’s not enough to keep up, she said. The loan would keep the shelter afloat, and Homeless Services would pay it back upon receipt of anticipated state money.
Bradstreet vowed the shelter would not close. If that were to happen, it would negatively affect all communities in the region and those relying on it.
If the shelter were unable to house people and lead them to social and health services, that would increase the burden on law enforcement, medical facilities, churches, social service agencies and more, she said.
She and staff plan to meet with town officials and have asked Aroostook County administrators to include the requested shelter support as part of municipal county tax bills.
Homeless Services could also adopt a General Assistance plan, billing each town for its residents living at the shelter under the basic assistance program run by the state and cities and towns. This plan would be costly to Presque Isle, for instance, she said. Last year, the city paid $15,658 to homeless services. Under a General Assistance plan, the city would have been paid $148,000, Bradstreet said.
Councilors agreed the shelter’s work must continue but were divided over financial solutions. Mike Chasse favored the General Assistance idea, saying a loan could set an unwelcome precedent whereby any struggling nonprofit group would look to the city.
Many towns don’t seem to be trying to support the shelter, Councilor Doug Cyr said, reading a list of towns and the amounts Homeless Services requested from each.
“Just to call out a few, you’ve got Caribou at $15,000. They contributed nothing,” he said. “Houlton, $12,000, they contributed zero. Fort Fairfield, $6,600, they contributed zero. Fort Kent, $8,100, they contributed zero.”
Councilor Craig Green favored granting the loan. The agency is doing what it does in a financially responsible way and has done well on a shoestring budget, including expanding with a new winter warming shelter, he said.
In the end councilors pushed back the loan request and voted to have interim City Manager Sonja Eyler, city staff and solicitor Richard Currier work with Bradstreet and the Homeless Services board to explore other financial arrangements, including having more towns pay a share.
Four voted yes, two voted no and one abstained.
Having Aroostook County bill the towns for shelter funding is possible, but it won’t happen in the near future, County Administrator Ryan D. Pelletier said Thursday.
“I know Homeless Services of Aroostook would like us to pick up the cost of what they bill out and absorb that into the county tax bills. Ideally, that makes a lot of sense,” Pelletier said. “But we’re quite a ways from that happening.”
At the county commissioners’ request, he is working to set up a group that includes members from southern, central and northern Aroostook that will work with him to examine requests from outside agencies such as Homeless Services, Northern Maine Development Commission, Aroostook County Action Program and more, he said.
The group will then meet with each entity to find out what their funding needs are, and would present their findings sometime in the fall for the fiscal year starting in July 2026.
He anticipates appointing the group at commissioners’ May 21 meeting.
