A 41-unit building that will serve as permanent supportive housing for people who are homeless and may have mental health disorders plans to open at the end of January.
Penquis CAP, a Bangor-based nonprofit social services agency, has worked for months to renovate the former Pine Tree Inn at 22 Cleveland St. into one-bedroom and efficiency apartments. Penquis is partnering with Community Health and Counseling Services to offer residents on-site services, such as addiction recovery.
The organization purchased the building and enlisted a contractor to begin renovations in May. Penquis initially hoped to open the building — named Theresa’s Place — by the end of the year, but construction is taking slightly longer than expected, said Jason Bird, Penquis’ housing development director.
“The costliest item from a time and project expense perspective has been updating the building’s electrical service as well as wiring it for individual apartments,” Bird said. “The original timeline was a best guess with a cushion built in, but unfortunately there were a few more curveballs we needed to address.”
Penquis plans to send out the application package for the building soon, Bird said.
The building sits across the street from Bangor’s largest homeless encampment, which the city is working to close by the end of February. The city pushed the encampment closure date back two months, in part due to the construction delay at the former inn.
The new units will help address the needs of the city’s homeless community, Bangor City Manager Debbie Laurie said. Though the city doesn’t believe the former inn could hold all of the people now living in tents in the wooded area across the street, Laurie said that moving some people into the former inn would free up space in shelters and other housing units.
“The movement within emergency shelters and transitional housing will provide an opportunity for those who are unsheltered to receive service,” Laurie said.
There were more than 70 people living in the encampment in October when the city announced plans to close it at the end of the year.
Since then, local outreach workers have found permanent housing for 15 people, while five others moved into a shelter, two more reconnected with family and another 13 left the encampment “under other circumstances,” according to a memo Jena Jones, Bangor’s homelessness response manager, gave to city councilors earlier this month.
