People experiencing homelessness in Aroostook County will soon have a larger place to weather cold nights.
Homeless Services of Aroostook will open a new warming space at 160 Airport Drive in Presque Isle on Friday, Nov. 1, in a building next to the Sister Mary O’Donnell shelter.
The County’s only homeless shelter purchased a nearby building in 2023. Along with administrative offices and two family rooms, the facility now has a space for the unhoused to have a meal and a safe place to sleep. It’s a marked improvement from using the main shelter’s dining room floor and will serve nearly twice as many people, Homeless Services of Aroostook Executive Director Kari Bradstreet said.
“We used the dining area last year, with mats, blankets and pillows, serving eight to 10 people [a night],” Bradstreet said. “Now we have 15 beds available, and I think the need is even greater this year.”
Last year, the temporary warming arrangement served 90 individual people from November through April, Bradstreet said. That means 90 different people accessed the warming site for one or more nights during that time.
The Sister Mary O’Donnell Homeless Shelter has 28 family beds and 21 beds in the Aroostook Bridge low-barrier program. There are also 8 family beds at 160 Airport Drive. But this time of year, it’s not enough, Bradstreet said.
The new warming center will help, and she’s grateful for a $135,000 Maine State Housing Authority grant which will keep the space open for the season.
The Presque Isle center is one of 12 statewide that got a piece of more than $2 million from MaineHousing, specifically for warming areas.
The money comes from an emergency state housing fund approved for the third time this year by Gov. Janet Mills and legislators, MaineHousing Director Dan Brennan said when the funding was announced on Sept. 9.
The largest award, $279,693, went to Kaydenz Kitchen of Lewiston, with the capacity to serve 90 per night. Three Bangor facilities received funding to serve a combined 93 people: Bangor Area Homeless Shelter, $30,000; Brick Church, $40,540 and Mansion Church, $60,000.
Other shelters benefiting are the Augusta Emergency Overnight Warming Center, Commonspace in Bath, Healthy Acadia in Ellsworth, the Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter in Waterville, New Beginnings in Lewiston, Seeds of Hope in Biddeford and Tedford in Brunswick.
Presque Isle first offered a warming center in December 2022. Funding was ending for a program that allowed the shelter to put their overflow of people up in local hotels, which would have left some 70 people in the lurch, Bradstreet said. So local legislators and stakeholders proposed a warming shelter.
They chose the Sister Mary O’Donnell building because of its sprinkler system, which is required where people sleep, she said. From January to April 2023, 81 people used the space.
The warming center is funded through April, but Bradstreet is already planning for the future. Besides seeking another MaineHousing grant to fund the facility through October 2026, she’s also working on an idea to give people who are homeless more stability.
“Homelessness is very complicated. If you’re homeless, nine times out of 10 you won’t have a driver’s license or birth certificate,” Bradstreet said. “To apply for subsidized housing, you have to have those. If you’re transient, how do you do that?”
Bradstreet wants to install locked boxes where people can receive mail, with USB ports to charge devices to stay in touch with family or seek health or employment help. Finding funding is the next step.
The new warming center will be open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. It will operate on a first-come, first-served basis, Bradstreet said.
The area has cots and an assortment of blankets and pillows, along with a bathroom and kitchenette. People staying there can also access laundry facilities. Staff and volunteers plan to have food available at night and will offer portable breakfast items in the morning like cereal bars, fruit and yogurt.
Community members are already coming together to help with the winter influx, she said. One group is holding a drive for cereal bars and similar items, and Mi’kmaq Farms in Caribou has donated local produce that has been processed and frozen for later use.
“We have a great community. They’ve been phenomenal,” Bradstreet said. “If we put [our needs] on social media, we have what we need within hours.”
For information, visit Homeless Services of Aroostook on Facebook.
