Bangor is planning to use a one-time General Assistance funding boost to support overnight warming centers after learning that two of the city’s existing centers would not be opening this winter.
The city is seeking applications from nonprofits that could use the funds to establish or expand warming centers, it announced Friday. The deadline to apply is 5 p.m. on Oct. 22.
The announcement comes as only one overnight warming center, the Mansion Church, is prepared and funded to open this year. Last year, three such shelters were available for the city’s homeless residents.
“We thought that there wasn’t going to be a gap if all the current organizations with their expansions were going to be funded to do what they were proposing. That is not what happened,” Public Health Director Jennifer Gunderman told city councilors at a committee meeting Monday.
The funding will go to organizations that can offer overnight warming center services starting in the second half of November and continuing through the end of April, according to the announcement. The centers will offer shelter “with as few barriers as possible,” provide meals and work with other local organizations to connect people with services such as case management and housing navigation.
The City Council is expected to approve $60,000 of warming center funding at its meeting Wednesday. That money will come out of an approximately $157,000 one-time payment from General Assistance, a program that helps people in need pay for basic necessities like housing and food.
Gunderman estimated the extra funding could support space for about 60 people to stay inside overnight this winter.
Councilors agreed that providing these services would be essential after the Brick Church, which offered space for between 60 and 70 people each night last year, was denied funding from MaineHousing to continue operating a warming center.
The Bangor Area Homeless Shelter decided in August to discontinue its warming center and instead add five shelter beds.
The Mansion Church was approved for MaineHousing funding and is expanding this year in hopes of hosting 50 people per night, according to a memo from Gunderman that was included in a City Council committee agenda. The memo also noted that Needlepoint Sanctuary plans to offer an overnight warming center in the Unitarian Universalist Church on extremely cold nights.
City Councilor Michael Beck said that he was glad the city would be funding more warming shelter space and suggested that City Manager Carollynn Lear declare an emergency to free up additional funding.
“The messaging I’d want people to hear is that the city of Bangor will not leave anyone out this winter, and these deaths are avoidable,” Beck said. “If we need to declare an emergency, we need to do it and do everything we can to save these lives.”
