Update as of Friday, April 10: Gov. Janet Mills has signed the budget into law. As more Mainers struggle to afford rent or find stable housing, state lawmakers are directing new funding toward programs aimed at keeping people in their homes and expanding shelter capacity. The supplemental budget passed in the House and Senate on…
With federal threats to food assistance and health care looming due to President Donald Trump’s budget proposal, Maine lawmakers approved a series of measures this session aimed at protecting the state’s most vulnerable residents. Among the new laws is LD 698, sponsored by Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Cumberland), which provides a one-time $4.5 million boost…
In a move to prevent the closure of one of the state’s most critical emergency shelters, Preble Street announced Tuesday that it will take over the operations of Hope House in February 2025. The 56-bed, low-barrier emergency shelter in Bangor has been a vital resource for people experiencing homelessness, especially those facing complex mental health…
Underscoring the severity of the crisis, a near unanimous committee vote advanced a measure this week to help address chronic homelessness through instituting a housing first model that provides 24-hour-a-day services to Mainers in need. The measure, LD 2, sponsored by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland), is among a slate of housing bills introduced…
In her budget address last month, Gov. Janet Mills spoke about Maine’s affordability crisis and officially backed a policy of housing first, an approach advocates say can help address chronic homelessness. But what does housing first mean in practice? At its core, Mark Swann, executive director of the social service group Preble Street, said the…
In a video captured by a bystander on Monday, Portland police officers are seen literally kicking bags holding the personal belongings of unhoused residents to the curb. They then disposed of them in a garbage truck. The incident was recorded at a bus stop near the Portland Post Office, across the street from a section…
The Portland City Council convened online on Monday evening and held a workshop on growing homeless encampments in the city’s Deering Oaks Park and now in front of City Hall. They did not, however, ask any of the unhoused residents currently protesting their policies to weigh in. Now in its seventh day, the “sleep-out” in…
Dozens of unhoused Mainers and allies slept out on the steps of Portland City Hall on Wednesday night to bring attention to the need for more shelter beds and basic services for the city’s most vulnerable residents. They also called out city officials for restricting food distribution in public spaces. For weeks, unhoused residents have…
When the staff at the Preble Street Resource Center in Portland were given access to the Sullivan Gymnasium at the University of Southern Maine in early April to limit the spread of the COVID-19 among Portland’s unhoused residents, they knew they had an opportunity to reinvent how shelters in the city operate. “We had a…
Though courts in Maine will not resume hearing eviction and foreclosure cases until August and the Mills administration has provided some rent relief to Mainers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, many who cannot pay their rent or mortgage fear they will be overwhelmed by mounting costs when those protections are lifted. “When this is all…