After struggling to find a safe, affordable place to rent in Bangor, Cherie Proudfoot and her two sons moved in with her best friend’s family in Old Town. For months, there were nine people living in a three-bedroom home.
A year later, Proudfoot, 31, and her sons Max, 7, and Winn, 5, moved into a home that Habitat for Humanity of Greater Bangor built and that Proudfoot now owns.
“The best part is that I have a safe place where my kids can grow up,” Proudfoot said.
At a dedication ceremony held at the Bosworth Street home Wednesday afternoon, neighbors and city officials welcomed the family to the community as Sara Trafton, executive director of the Greater Bangor chapter of Habitat for Humanity handed Proudfoot the keys to the new home.
“Her story and her situation kind of made her the top choice,” Trafton said. “We’re getting her out of an overcrowded situation into this home of her own.”
Proudfoot’s home is the third project Habitat for Humanity of Greater Bangor has finished in Old Town. The first home the non-profit built was on Bennoch Road followed by a house on Seventh Street, both completed in 2018. The home where Proudfoot and her two sons are living is the 22nd project the organization has completed since 1990.
Habitat for Humanity does not just hand out homes to people, which is a common misconception, Trafton said. There is an application process for families, which includes a check through a bank to confirm they qualify for a mortgage and can afford the monthly payments.
Families who work with the Bangor chapter of Habitat for Humanity fall within 30 to 80 percent of the area’s median income. For a family of three like Proudfoot’s, that’s about $21,000 to $51,000.
Habitat wants to step up its efforts to provide affordable housing in the Bangor area by building five homes a year, up from its current rate of one or two, Trafton said. But the most challenging aspect of that work is acquiring land, Trafton said.
The organization has built a few homes in Hampden, Bangor and other towns but hasn’t established the kind of partnership with other towns that it has with Old Town.
“Old Town is unique because they’re just so on board with what we’re doing. They just have a commitment to affordable housing,” Trafton said. “Not only did they work with us to acquire the land, folks from the city came down and actually did some volunteer work as well.”
Unlike many other cities, Old Town typically chooses to demolish the properties it’s deemed unfit for habitation instead of first trying to sell them for redevelopment, according to Travis Roy, assistant city manager and assessor.
This allows the city to choose to donate the land to Habitat for Humanity or put it up for sale. Sometimes, if a property the city has put up for sale does not garner much interest, the City Council may choose to donate it after a couple rounds of requesting bids.
“We see it as a beneficial relationship between Habitat and the city to work towards improving these neighborhoods with better housing stock and providing lower-cost housing for people that can use that opportunity,” Roy said. “It’s helping us better our community, and it’s helping us get those places back on the tax rolls and helping people have affordable and safe housing.”
For the past three years, Habitat for Humanity has collaborated with Eastern Maine Community College building programs to allow students to build homes as part of their curriculum. Proudfoot’s two-section home was built at the community college in Bangor and transported to Old Town to save time.
“We want to do a real home for students to engage in and learn on,” said Troy Blodgett, a building construction instructor at the community college. “But then students get to see that we’re not just building a house, we’re building a home itself. They get to see why they’re learning what they’re learning.”
Proudfoot’s home marked Habitat and Eastern Maine Community College’s third completed, collaborative project. Community college students are already working on the fourth one: condos on Perkins Avenue in Old Town.