Homeless sisters are 1st tenants of vacant Bangor house turned into apartments

Melinda Lamb and her younger sister, Sierra, moved into their first Bangor apartment together on May 1, ending four years of homelessness.

The sisters are the first tenants of Design Wall Housing, a Bangor nonprofit that turns vacant, dilapidated homes into affordable housing for people who were homeless. The three-bedroom unit, which the nonprofit recently finished renovating, has given the sisters hope, Melinda Lamb said.

“They’ve given us more than a home, they’ve given us a new start,” Melinda Lamb, 35, said of Design Wall Housing. “They’ve changed everything for us.”

Design Wall Housing, founded by Robin and Jonathan Sandau, has spent nearly two years renovating a derelict two-family home on Smith Street Avenue in Bangor. The couple finished work on the first unit in early May and aims to complete and fill the second apartment in early June.

The couple founded Design Wall Housing in 2019. They then purchased the home and began renovating it in October 2023.

The lengthy renovation revived one of the dozens of vacant and derelict properties in Bangor. The nonprofit also created new housing for a family that, like many in the region, was grappling with homelessness and substance use for years.

Melinda Lamb said she left home to escape an abusive parent when she was 15. She took her sister, who was 10 at the time, with her and began working to support them. The sisters later started using drugs and were homeless for four years until they entered recovery and began rebuilding their lives.

The family most recently lived in a hotel room for six months, which cost them $490 a week. The sisters now live with 3-month-old Elianna, Sierra Lamb’s daughter, and are hoping to eventually regain custody of their other children. Melinda and Sierra Lamb have two and five children, respectively.

Melinda Lamb, who works full time, said she and her sister are also re-enrolling in school. Melinda Lamb hopes to one day open a family rehabilitation center while her sister is striving to become a certified nursing assistant.

“We may have a past, but now we have a future,” Melinda Lamb said. “This house has a past too, but it has been transformed into something beautiful. Now, we get to have our transformation.”

The building had sat vacant for three years before the nonprofit took it over. Because of this neglect, the home needed significant work to make it safe and usable, Jonathan Sandau said.

“In a nutshell, this building has been taken down to its bones and then rebuilt,” Robin Sandau said. “The heating, plumbing and electrical wiring are all brand new.”

The building’s foundation also needed repairs and one side of the home suffered significant water damage that needed to be addressed, Jonathan Sandau said.

The renovations cost between $175,00 and $200,000 in total, according to Jonathan Sandau.

In 2023, the nonprofit received $140,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds from Bangor as well as $24,500 in pandemic relief funding from Penobscot County to support its work.

The couple said they completed much of the work themselves and with the help of volunteers. For the projects they couldn’t complete on their own, such as replacing the rafters and installing a new roof, the Sandaus said local contractors often offered a discounted price for the work.

“We are proof that you don’t have to be a large nonprofit to make a difference,” Robin Sandau said. “It’s about the passion that’s behind it.”

The couple will likely continue completing projects on the home’s exterior in the coming months, such as installing new gutters and fixing the driveway.

The nonprofit has volunteers who check on the tenants daily to ensure they have basic necessities and offer help or guidance on whatever they might need, Robin Sandau said.

“It’s really about helping people remember that they matter,” she said.

The couple, both of whom work in social services locally, also accepts housing vouchers, which means rent fees can vary based on a tenant’s situation and the type of voucher they have. Tenants who are working may pay 30 percent of their monthly income as rent, while those who don’t work pay a flat monthly fee, Robin Sandau said.

The nonprofit plans to next create a third unit in a detached building on the Smith Street Avenue property to offer more affordable housing for those who need it.

“We want to keep providing hope and housing, one unit at a time,” Robin Sandau said.