A Portland homeless service organization is interested in taking over a Bangor shelter to save it from closing, but the nonprofit said it needs more funding from the state to do so.
Years of skyrocketing costs and flat funding remained flat led Penobscot Community Health Care to seek a new owner for the Hope House Health and Living Center. Bangor’s only low-barrier shelter serves dozens of the city’s most vulnerable residents, many of whom are grappling with untreated substance use disorders, mental health disorders and chronic homelessness and would have nowhere to go if it closed.
The executive director of Portland-based Preble Street, which offers services for people facing homelessness, hunger and poverty, said his organization is interested in taking over Hope House, but its own two low-barrier shelters already face a budget shortfall of $2 million. Without funding from the state, it’s impossible for the organization to take on the Bangor shelter “in a way that’s responsible,” Mark Swann said.
Low-barrier shelters across Maine have warned that the closure of the Hope House will result in more people living outside where they’re more likely to wind up incarcerated or hospitalized. Some people served by Hope House will likely migrate south, seeking help from other shelters only to find they’re full.
“These are very ill people,” Swann said. “If these low-barrier shelters didn’t exist, these people would be causing incredible heartache in their communities.”
The high needs of the population they serve and more people needing help for longer periods of time have combined to make providing help increasingly more expensive for shelters across Maine. Some organizations have warned they’re at risk of closing without immediate, ample and annual funding.
“The message to Maine is no one is coming to save us,” said Dr. Katie Spencer White, CEO of Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter in Waterville. “There’s no white horse on the horizon.”
Leaders of Maine’s emergency shelters, have begged the state for more funding by advocating for a bill that would give shelters continuous funding totalling $10 million. The bill, which cleared the Legislature housing committee and is waiting for a vote on the House floor, would also give Preble Street a chance to absorb the Hope House, Swann said.
“If the state funding happens, that will be a huge step toward keeping Hope House open, but that will only get us about two-thirds of the way there,” Swann said. “I’m hoping the momentum and excitement around that will help generate other support. Clearly, keeping Hope House open is a good investment.”
If Preble Street takes on the Hope House, it wouldn’t be the first time the organization has absorbed a shelter after the previous owner buckled under the financial pressure of operating the facility.
The nonprofit took on the Lighthouse Shelter, a 14-bed facility for homeless teens, in 2004 after the Salvation Army announced plans to close it, Swann said.
Preble Street also opened Florence House, its low-barrier shelter for women, in 2010 to help those who relied on a similar shelter that closed when the YWCA shuttered.
White said the cash flow of Waterville’s low-barrier shelter is projected to run out this summer.
“We’re looking for an acknowledgement of and willingness to invest long term in low-barrier shelters,” White said. “This is work that requires investment, but it’s a good value for the money.”
White said she wants to see the state, local communities, philanthropic organizations, health care agencies and even Maine’s colleges and universities chip in to keep the state’s struggling shelters open. This is because the work shelters do keeps people from living on the streets and out of emergency rooms.
However, White doesn’t believe the federal government will be part of the solution because the scale of other states’ homeless populations overshadow Maine’s.
Swann said there’s likely no “perfect percentage” of where funding for low-barrier shelters should come from. However, he argued the Maine Department of Health and Human Services should be compensating the organizations for the “clinical work” they do caring for people with untreated substance use disorder and mental health disorders.
“DHHS needs to have some responsibility for this work,” Swann said. “I think it’s an accident of history that state funding comes through MaineHousing and not DHHS.”
Swann also believes public funding should cover 75 percent of Preble Street’s $2 million annual operating expenses. Currently, public funding only accounts for about $600,000.
Meanwhile, Elena’s Way, one of Preble Street’s shelters, is facing a $1.4 million deficit from its $2 million operating budget, Swann said.
“All of the shelters try hard to raise private money with bake sales and car washes, but relying on that year after year isn’t a solution,” Swann said. “Depending on us, but not supporting us in any way, is not going to last, and poor people are going to suffer.”
In the last legislature session, lawmakers awarded $5 million in one-time funding that was divided across Maine’s 37 shelters. The Hope House’s portion of the award amounted to $232,000, falling well short of covering the $1 million shortfall the Hope House is expecting to suffer this year.
The Hope House became untenable for PCHC to operate because the shelter’s complex population is increasingly more expensive to care for. This is because they require higher guest-to-staff ratios and employees must be highly skilled, which demands higher pay, according to Lori Dwyer, PCHC president and CEO.
Staff compensation accounted for about 75 percent of the Hope House’s $1.9 million operating costs in 2023, Dwyer said. Last year, the shelter suffered a $700,000 deficit, far higher than the $176,000 it lost in 2019.
Meanwhile, the House House’s five revenue streams have all remained level and failed to keep up with rapidly rising costs, Dwyer said.
Currently, the shelter receives roughly $500,000 in Maine residential shelter funding from the Maine Office of Substance Use, $440,000 in ESHAP funding from the MaineHousing Authority, $36,000 from a United Way grant, $70,000 in general assistance from Bangor and $45,000 in private donations and fundraising.
Without a new operator and more funding, Hope House will close in October, Dwyer said.