Downeast Community Partners, the struggling social service agency serving Hancock and Washington counties that’s in the process of shutting down, owes the Maine Department of Health and Human Services more than $4 million.
That’s according to liens filed last month in the Hancock and Washington county registries of deeds against four of the agency’s properties, which state that Downeast Community Partners is in debt to the department for $4,022,149.
The properties are the service agency’s former Ellsworth headquarters at 248 Bucksport Road, a childcare facility at 18 Avery Lane in Ellsworth, its Friendship Cottage adult day care center in Blue Hill at 118 Ellsworth Road and its now-sold Washington County offices at 7 VIP Drive in Machias.
The liens appear to be filed because the agency didn’t provide enough evidence it fulfilled contracts with the state, and it is now selling properties.
It’s the latest public bump in the road for the troubled group, which faced financial problems and leadership upheaval before deciding to turn over operations to its Aroostook County counterpart this summer. The Downeast and Aroostook groups are in the process of forming a three-county agency.
Community action programs are regional agencies that offer social services and work to alleviate poverty, largely using federal block grants that are administered by state governments. Downeast Community Partners, formed in 2017 by a merger of two such agencies, served Hancock and Washington counties.
Its offerings included Head Start and Early Head Start childhood education programs, elder care, transportation services, heating assistance, home weatherization and repair, education and support for new mothers by nurses, financial coaching, meal assistance and more.
But it struggled financially for years, problems leadership previously attributed to staff turnover and past financial practices. This summer, CEO Rota Knott took the unusual step of sending out a press release on her concerns about its board members, followed by notification that they had fired her.
The Downeast group decided this summer to join the Aroostook County agency in order to preserve its programs and services “in the face of significant financial and operational challenges currently facing DCP,” leadership said at the time.
The liens were filed in October, according to deed registries, and debt notification made in September.
“When taxpayer funds are provided for services in a contract, the vendor has an obligation to produce documentation that the services were delivered, and the funds were used for the purpose that was intended,” Maine DHHS spokesperson Lindsay Hammes said Monday.
When documentation hasn’t been provided or isn’t sufficient, vendors can be obligated to return the money, and liens are an option for the department to get funds back, Hammes said.
Downeast Community Partners did not return a request for comment.
The liens will have “no impact” on the programs and services now provided by the Aroostook agency, its CEO, Jason Parent, said Monday.
All of DCP’s contracts for major programs, including Head Start, Early Head Start, energy assistance, elder services and federal grant administration, have been transferred to ACAP, Parent said. Transportation services were taken over by Waldo Community Action Partners.
The tri-county agency representing Aroostook, Hancock and Washington counties should have a board of directors in place by the first quarter of 2026 and is on track to announce a new name and branding that summer, according to Parent.
In Hancock County, the agency has moved its in-person offices to the Avery Lane site, where it still hosts early childhood education, and is in the process of transferring the building, he said. It was constructed with federal dollars to house Head Start. That federal interest means it has to continue being used for the programs, according to Parent.
The agency’s former Bucksport Road headquarters are for sale for $1.5 million. Its Machias building sold in Septembe r for $329,000, according to a real estate transfer tax declaration filed with the state.
The Aroostook agency continues to operate Friendship Cottage in Blue Hill and is working with donors in hopes of purchasing it to continue offering elder care services, according to Parent.
The agency is also looking to rent new headquarters in Machias; elsewhere in Washington County, it continues to share space with the Calais town office as Downeast Community Partners did. It also works in schools and colleges Down East.
