People who have struggled with chronic homelessness and may have mental health disorders will be able to move into 41 units of permanent supportive housing in Bangor next month.
Penquis CAP, a Bangor-based nonprofit social services agency, on Monday celebrated the opening of Theresa’s Place, a new apartment building at 22 Cleveland St. The building, which was once the Pine Tree Inn, now holds 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 building has community rooms for peer-support groups as well as space for one-on-one case management meetings.
The units bolster the city’s affordable housing stock, which has grown meagerly in recent years, and are designed specifically to support people who have previously struggled to stay housed. The apartment building also comes online when the city is working to close the adjacent homeless encampment after moving everyone living there into shelter.
“A home is where it starts,” said Kara Hay, Penquis’ president and CEO. “You need a home to get grounded, take care of your well-being, find employment, to get job training and be able to be healthy and strong and be a better contributor to the community. That keeps our community healthy and thriving.”
The housing resource is named in honor of Theresa Bray Knowles, a Penobscot Community Health Care health care provider and a member of the Penquis steering committee who died in August 2021, according to Penquis.
Bray Knowles was known locally for her passion for helping people, especially those who were marginalized, forgotten or pushed aside, according to her husband Aaron Knowles.
The organization expects tenants to start moving into the building in mid-March. Crews are working on finishing touches, like painting, hanging a sign and cleaning the units, over the next one to two weeks, said Jason Bird, Penquis’ housing development director.
The Housing Foundation, an Orono organization that provides affordable housing and support services, will manage the building and oversee applications to live in Theresa’s Place. At least two dozen applications have already been submitted, Hay said, and housing vouchers will be accepted.
Depending on whether tenants have a voucher and what their monthly income is, rent prices for a studio will range from $497 to $828, while monthly rental rates for one-bedroom apartments could be from $533 to $887, according to Peter Malia, Penquis’ housing development operations manager.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday came after Penquis has worked on the renovation project for years. The nonprofit received more than $4 million in pandemic relief funding from the city in 2022.
Penquis aimed to have the units ready by the end of 2024, but construction took slightly longer than expected, which delayed the opening date two months, Bird previously told the Bangor Daily News.
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 delayed the encampment closure date two months, in part due to the construction delay at the former inn.
Though the inn wasn’t converted specifically to house all of the people now living in the wooded area across the street, Hay said that opening Theresa’s Place will create movement within the area. People moving into the building will free up space in nearby shelters and other housing units in the region.
Penquis is also still accepting donations for household items to help new residents feel at home when they move into Theresa’s Place. Those donations could include cleaning supplies, kitchen essentials and even bedding.
