PUBLIC COMPELS COMMITTEE TO STABILIZE FUNDING FOR HOMELESS SHELTERS
1,000 Mainers sleep in homeless shelters every night
AUGUSTA–For more than two hours, more than a dozen people turned out in support of a measure to stabilize funding for Maine’s homeless shelters at a public hearing today.
“No one chooses to be homeless. Our shelters serve as the last line of defense for the neediest among us,” said Senate Democratic Leader Justin Alfond of Portland, the sponsor of the measure. “The purpose of this bill is to provide a dedicated and stable funding source to ensure that our most vulnerable Mainers have a safe place to sleep at night. As legislators, we have a responsibility to make sure shelters are adequately funded and there’s a place for Mainers to go to and be safe. ”
Sen. Justin Alfond of Portland
Currently, the state appropriates $380,000 per year for the 42 shelters across the state, which is down from $500,000 when the fund was established in 1987. An additional and discretionary $2.4 million comes from Maine Housing’s HOME Fund, which is meant to establish permanent housing for the homeless. Some municipalities, like Portland and Bangor, have been forced to rely on General Assistance to close the funding gap.
“The fragility of Maine’s shelters cannot be overstated. Over the last 15 years, 12 to 13 shelters have closed because of lack of funding,” said Mark Swann, Executive Director of Preble Street. “We have a problem; and this bill can be a great start toward a solution. Let’s reform the broken system.”
According to Swann, on a given night in Maine, there are 1,000 Mainers sleeping in one of Maine’s 42 shelters each night.
Trip Gardner, M.D. from Penobscot Community Health Care that runs the Hope House in Bangor said, “Homeless shelters have cut all they can, have tapped all funding streams, and still can’t break even. It is our commitment to our community that keeps our doors open.”
According to Gardner, Hope House served 676 people in the past year, 29 of whom were over the age of 62–and 520 of whom had brain diseases.
Francine Garland-Stark of the Hope and Justice Project in Aroostook County works with people who are seeking shelter from domestic violence situations. She discussed the critical need for women to go to where it is safe–and that is often miles away from their home and from their friends and family. Lack of housing is the number one reason women aren’t able to leave abusive relationships. According to the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, 835 requests for shelter were denied in 2013 and in 2012, 1,056 were turned away.
John Richardson of Bread of Life Ministries in Augusta, said they had to turn away 800 people last year because of lack of resources.
He reminded the committee about a homeless person who died under a bridge from hypothermia last year.
Bob Rowe of New Beginnings youth shelter in Lewiston said the bill “offers a pragmatic approach that won’t fix everything” but it does help make things work for this problem that is a “rural, urban and suburban issue.”
New Beginnings is the last 24-hour care youth shelter remaining in Maine; there are only two other teen shelters in Portland and Bangor serving the entire state.
Rowe added, “Things can go backwards. And going backwards for children means incarcerating children with adults–which is how things were before New Beginnings and the youth shelter movement. I urge you to think about how we don’t want to go backwards when we’re presenting a way forward.”
Sen. Gratwick of Bangor
Recently, Portland’s homeless shelters have come under fire by Gov. LePage and DHHS Commissioner Mary Mayhew. “The people who work at homeless shelters practice daily and quietly, what all too many of us only practice on Sunday,” said bill co-sponsor Democratic State Senator Geoff Gratwick of Bangor.
The state’s Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee will hold a work session for LD 443, “An Act To Help Stabilize Homeless Shelters in Maine” in the coming days.
###