BANGOR, Maine — Despite statewide demand for its services, Manna Ministries’ recently opened shelter for homeless women and children is facing serious funding problems.
Located at Manna’s large brick headquarters on Main Street, Ann’s House can accommodate up to five women and their children at a time, executive director Bill Rae said in an interview this week.
Besides a safe place to live, the women staying at Ann’s House have access to food, clothing and an array of services aimed at helping them get back on their feet and on the way to independent, healthy home lives.
In some cases, Rae said, that might mean help with earning a GED, obtaining a driver’s license or housing and food assistance.
“These are the kinds of things most of us take for granted,” he said.
For others, that could mean counseling or access to services for domestic violence victims or people afflicted with mental illness.
There is no set limit for how long women can stay at the shelter but while there they are expected to be working toward improving their lives. They also must abide by house rules, such as curfews and not having male guests.
From the time it opened on Jan. 2, the shelter has been at full capacity. The waiting list, which included about a dozen families in the month before the shelter opened, stood at 37 families this week.
So far, six mothers and about twice the number of children have received the help they needed and moved into homes of their own, Rae said. Some mothers have landed jobs and others are going to school.
After the instability of having been homeless or “couch surfing” at the homes of friends and relatives, some of the women sob with relief upon arriving at Ann’s House, Director Sherry Molcan said this week.
“We let them know that you can do this on your own,” she said.
“But the biggest change is the kids,” Rae said. “When they arrive here, some of them are very untrusting, very despondent and very unruly. By the time they leave, you do see these kids smiling again.”
Largely because it is the only one of its kind in Greater Bangor and most of Maine, the shelter’s waiting list is long. Many on the list are from Greater Bangor but the list also includes people from Lewiston, small towns up and down the coast of Maine and the northern reaches of the state.
According to Rae, it costs Manna at least $2,100 a week to keep the shelter running, a figure that includes everything from heat and electricity to case managers, counseling and other services.
Ann’s House was set to receive reimbursement from a Maine State Housing Authority shelter program in January, Rae said.
“That would have covered most of our budget,” he said.
But before that could happen, a freeze was put on shelter funding through the rest of this fiscal year, he said. Efforts to get the freeze lifted so far have been unsuccessful.
General assistance dollars also are getting harder to come by, compounding the shelter’s funding problems, he said.
As a result, Rae and others involved in the effort are working to cobble together grants, gifts and whatever else they can in order to keep the shelter running.
Rae is hoping the community will come through for the families at Ann’s House, either through monetary contributions or gifts of new or lightly used infant and children’s clothing, diapers and household basics including pots and pans, dishes and linens, to name a few.
Besides money, perhaps the shelter’s biggest need is a van to help the women get to and from appointments, classes and errands, he said.
For information or to donate to Ann’s House, call 990-2870, ext. 102, or visit Manna’s website at mannamaine.org. Contributions also can be dropped off at 629 Main St.
Manna does important work and I am thankful for that. I am also consistently impressed by Manna’s ability to get out in front of stories and manage the media so effectively – Mr Rae has real skill in that regard and it directly benefits the people who rely on Manna for help.
I could not have said it better myself. Bill Rae and Manna have been doing the job that others do not want to do for years. When others turn their backs and walk away, Bill (and his volunteers) wade in and never ask for anything for themselves.
During these tough times it is important for him to do what he is doing. That means reaching out to the people of Bangor that have the resources to write a check. Often times if we are not reminded we forget to do it. Good job by him keeping up with top of the mind awareness. I will be sending MANNA a check tomorrow.
You sure on that
Lightly used diapers…lol
did you even read it right! this is what it said.. duh!
new or lightly used infant and children’s clothing, diapers and household basics including pots and pans, dishes and linens, to name a few.
Cloth diapers wouldn’t be a bad idea. They are good enough for my kids! In fact, we prefer them over disposable diapers. They are far more sanitary, fewer chemicals, they have saved us thousands of dollars over disposables for 2 children, they are better for the environment, cuter, and they are far kinder on my kids’ sensitive skin. We have a camp washer set up (5-gallon bucket with hole drilled in the lid and a plunger with holes drilled in the side along with a drying rack) so we can wash them if we are away from home without access to a washer/dryer – or if we just want to save money on our utilities. Modern cloth diapers are crazy easy to use. I would never go back to disposable diapers, even if they were free. Besides, waste belongs in the toilet, not in the landfill. It is illegal to dispose of human waste in a landfill, and if you read that box of disposable diapers closely, it says right on the box to scrape the waste out into the toilet…
How can LePage not see that his fiscal ideologies do not line up with his own values? This shelter helps alot of domestic violence victims get back on their feet too, wasn’t that his supposive “top priority”? Apparently NOT!
You may be mistaking Mr. LePage’s photo-ops and campaign slogans for “Values” of which regarding this type of issue he likely has none. Now if you want to talk about lowing tax rates on rich folks with multimillion dollar estates or bragging about avoiding ever having paid a property tax in Maine himself, well that’s a different story. The man will talk your ear off and he’ll actually back up what he says because in some way those things have “Value” for him.
As a victim of severe domestic abuse as a child Governor LePage certainly wants to combat this crime, as do all. However his top priority is restoring jobs and growth to Maine in order to create opportunities so people aren’t trapped in cycles of poverty, abuse and government dependence. In order to do this businesses need to be able to grow so that the tax base exists to fund programs and get people employed so they don’t need shelters and general assistance.
Funding is extremely tight and he has a constitutional responsibility to balance the budget. If the Maine Housing Authority cleaned up waste there could be more money for these shelters.
LePage doesn’t decide where the Housing Authority allocates its funds. Same goes for the City of Bangor.
T here is no money tree. It is arrogant for you to question his values based upon numbers…how much time and money did you give to charity this year?
LePage has no values.
The man knows how to play the game, every sound cut known to man in the article
well at least he gave what he had!
Programs like this should be funded, I don’t think you will get much of an argument other then maybe the ACLU.
What makes you think the ACLU would have a problem?I’ve donated to Manna when I could and hopefully I can help them again soon.
The ACLU would not have a problem with this program. This program helps and it works.
One would stop to consider the State of Maine would be ultra sympathetic to the needs of these people and the children, and the local government could at least budget-in some financial assistance. This is an immediacy situation. With the further assistance of “volunteers” and local businesses like grocery stores who often enough disqualify their groceries when they reach near-termination date but still are in acceptable consumption condition (meats, vegetables, canned goods, etc); and even local churches could assist somewhat through their food and clothing pantry services and additional helpful “donations” of cash. What about local business pledging cash “pledges” for a year to Manna through a televised program event? I doubt too many women with or without children are going to take undue advantage of the Manna’s assistance. The part that is a squeeze is that the waiting list is very long. What happens to those on the waiting list?
The city and state both fund services for the needy. Businesses and groups and individuals contribute various forms of charity all the time. You can donate to the Hike for the Homeless and participate in plenty of other events.
You didn’t invent community action or charity. If you want to be involved get out there…
Its really nice what Rae is trying to do. But are some of the people that keep coming back to the shelter the same one’s or does it changing daily. Don’t you have to have a address to be able to get general assistance monthly and Maine Care. The woman that come to your shelter with children does anyone know where the father’s are and make them accoutable for there own children.
No, it’s not the same families who keep coming back. They can only take 5 families at a time and there are 37 families on the waiting list. It takes time to get a family on its feet, but once a woman gets her GED, her license, counseling, she can get a job, afford an apartment and move on with her children and support her family herself. Then someone on the waiting list can move in and get help. That’s the point. To make a real change doesn’t happen overnight. It isn’t easy, but that’s what it takes. We need more, not less of this kind of help for domestic violence families. If the fathers were not beating up on the mothers and children and were responsible men, there would be no need.
Wow nice too see they move on after. But does the State get involved after they move on. with monthy money issues and health insurance????
Bill Rae must need another new truck! He hasn’t got me fooled many yes but not me and he knows why!
Well you sure told us!
They ever do a background check on the director? I’d be questioning the criminal background and the position she’s holding. Freedom of Information Act. Is this person even qualified for the job? Bill Rae must see something…Hmmmm
He says that they are having trouble with funding, yet he is asking for a van??? How does this make sense? Oh ya, it doesn’t!!!!
The alternative may be cab fare, which is very expensive. It saps the budgets of these programs to have to pay for these types of things.
No, the alternative is the City BUS!!!!
Perhaps some of these ladies can cook or sew or work with yarn and can make and sell items, which all are good therapy and distraction. If they had a store some place to sell these items it would benefit everyone and people would be more likely to donate.
I like your idea!
Tell the homeless a life free of responsibility is over in Bangor. Then offer them $100 and a bus ticket out of state.
How about you look into homelessness a little bit and see how high the percentage of those homeless are veterans and people with mental illness? The majority aren’t just lazy bums/hobos like you would pretend they are in order to ease your conscious. Its easy to disparage the lazy, not so much with someone who served his/her country or has difficulty telling the difference between reality and a schizophrenic hallucination.
“. . . a freeze was put on shelter funding through the rest of this fiscal year . . .”
‘For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’
This is a wonderful service that has fallen victim to the cuts the governor has made.
This program works.
If you knew what he did with the funds you would not say that. Funds are not being used what they are supposed to be
Poverty is an Industry and and in some cases there are people who’s only job is to raise money.
Section 8 housing cost hundreds of millons in Maine alone per year.. MSHA builds nothing but low income housing. We have a food stamp program in Maine that funnels over a billon a year to Food Marts.. We have 1/2 a billon + in health care. Free education programs, drug rehab programs and a number of womens shelters, mens shelters and the list goes on and on. These businesses that provide for the needed are now competing against each other.
You can’t say that people don’t care with all the money the State spends on the needy…
Homelessness is big business. I’m surprised someone hasn’t franchised the concept by now. How will we we ever cut state budgets when social service agencies such as Manna continue to capitalize on guilt, tight economic times, alleged need to expand services, alleged “waiting list”, etc. etc. At what point do we look closer at the audits (or lack of), salary levels, nepotism issues, duplication of services, the list goes on. What about outcomes? Do we continue pouring funds into programs without evaluating results? We need a major cultural shift and slow (or ideally stop) the growing entitlement mentality in the social service arena. This taxpayer is fed up.
Have any of the compassionate zealots, a/k/a as sheeple posting here ever analyzed ” Little Red Riding Hood”? Again?
They furnishing for the Ritz-Carlton or a shelter to help get people back on their feet?? I see why they are in the hole. Ever hear of donations? Mardens? Walmart? to furnish Ann’s House? Someone has a spending problem? I know I wouldn’t donate any money unless their “spending problem” is in check! Now accepting applications…