A former Bangor inn is going to be turned into 41 units of permanent housing for people who are homeless and grappling with mental health disorders. Construction is expected to begin in the coming weeks.
Penquis, a Bangor-based nonprofit social services agency, will partner with Community Health and Counseling Services to offer on-site services, such as addiction recovery, to residents of the building once renovations are complete, said Jason Bird, Penquis’ housing development director.
The 41 units at the former Pine Tree Inn at 22 Cleveland St. will be a mix of one-bedroom and efficiency apartments, but Bird didn’t know how many of each the building will hold. Each unit will have its own bathroom and kitchen, and the building will also offer some common areas, including a communal kitchen and meeting space where support groups and outside services can meet.
Construction to renovate the building will begin this month and is estimated to take about four months, Bird said. The nonprofit hopes tenants can move in sometime this fall, before the weather gets cold.
The building sits across the street from Bangor’s largest homeless encampment, in which an estimated 45 people live in tents, campers and other rudimentary shelters. While some in the encampment have been homeless for only a few months, others have lived outside for years. The site highlights the region’s growing need for more housing and services for people with substance use disorder and other mental health challenges.
“We can’t expect individuals to simply overcome their addiction, mental health disorders or other challenges they face that are causing the homelessness by telling them to bootstrap it or solve it on their own,” Bird said. “These individuals need support and I think a moral obligation as a community and as a society to care for the least healthy among us.”
Extending support to the community’s most vulnerable members will also have a financial benefit for taxpayers, Bird said, as it will lead to fewer emergency room visits, incarcerations and other social costs.
Tenants will be allowed to use housing vouchers to cover the majority of their rent. Most vouchers will likely require tenants to chip in 30 percent of their monthly income as a rent payment, Bird said. If a tenant has no income, the voucher will cover their full rent.
Penquis will follow the Housing First model when selecting tenants, Bird said, which is based on the idea that housing should be the foundation for people who are homeless to improve their lives. Once someone is housed and has their basic needs met, they have a better chance of recovering from mental and physical health issues they may have.
“Because we’re going to have intensive on-site services available, we want to be able to target the hardest to house — the individuals that may require the most support,” Bird said.
Penquis secured a mix of federal, state and local funding to purchase and renovate the building, Bird said.
The 41 units are just a fraction of the 367 housing units approved by the city in recent years that are either under construction or scheduled to begin soon, according to the city website.
Of those, the Penquis project is the only one that will provide permanent supportive housing. Three other projects provide some kind of affordable housing for families or seniors specifically, but the remaining six projects — totalling 188 units — will be market rate.
While the forthcoming units vary in size, location and restrictions on who can live there, the new housing will fight against Maine’s staggering housing shortage.
Once complete, the new housing will be called “Theresa’s Place,” named in honor of Theresa Bray Knowles who died in August 2021 of esophageal cancer at the age of 45. She was a health care provider at Penobscot Community Health Care and sat on a Penquis steering committee.
“She embodied the spirit and intent of the building, which is to work toward serving the most vulnerable,” Bird said. “She was a force to be reckoned with and made a tremendous difference in our community.”
