Bangor groups receive $2M to combat homelessness

Three Bangor organizations and the city received more than $2 million in federal funding to combat homelessness. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins announced on Monday that 15 organizations and state agencies throughout Maine were awarded $20,850,852 in total to support housing assistance for homeless people and families, as well as those fleeing domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. Bangor-area organizations and the city were awarded $2,182,715 in total. The city claimed $1,231,588, the largest portion, while Community Care, a social services organization, earned $803,937. Penquis CAP and OHI, a disability services and support nonprofit, received $100,000 and $47,190, respectively. The funding was provided through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Continuum of Care Program, which promotes a community-wide commitment to ending homelessness. The financial support comes as Bangor is working to tame an ongoing homelessness crisis, which mirrors what other Maine cities are experiencing. The city’s growing number of homeless people, and lack of a clear strategy to address it, drew a federal crisis response team to teach local outreach workers how to assist and rapidly rehouse unsheltered people last year. Since then, Bangor has cleared and cleaned one of its two largest homeless encampments, which was located off Valley Avenue. Outreach workers now continue to work with people in the city’s remaining major encampment behind the Hope House, otherwise known as Tent City, with the goal of getting people housed.