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As outlined in a Bangor Daily News headline to start the week, state lawmakers and local officials are clashing over who should save a Bangor-based homeless shelter.
At the risk of sounding overly simplistic, everyone involved should be working to save the Hope House Health and Living Center. The critical task of preventing the area’s only low-barrier homeless shelter from shuttering, potentially this fall, requires continued action (and funding) at all levels of government. That means collaboration and deliberation, not finger-pointing.
So rather than quickly take sides in what appears to be a spiraling, potentially unproductive disagreement between Bangor’s state legislators and officials from the city and county, we hope everyone can first focus on a unifying thought: Those involved have already recognized the important role that this shelter plays in the city and the region, and worked to support it.
So the main question shouldn’t be about who is or isn’t pulling their weight with funding so far, it should be universal reflection at each level about what everyone can do to avoid closure and preserve critical services for some of Bangor and the region’s most vulnerable people.
State lawmakers are on the verge of extending a $7.5 million lifeline for low-barrier shelters across the state. That would potentially mean around $500,000 for the Hope House each year over the next three years. The Bangor City Council and Penobscot County Commission have already committed $5 million combined from their share of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds toward renovations at the Hope House.
Now, those investments and signs of support would potentially be for naught if the shelter were to close its doors while facing a roughly $800,000 shortfall.
As outlined by BDN reporter Kathleen O’Brien, Portland-based Preble Street has shown interest in taking over management of the Hope House, but indicated that a sustainable funding source is needed to facilitate that transition. So, what can local and state leaders do to help this type of transition?
To us, the starting point involves any unused ARPA funds from the city and county already slated for renovations at the Hope House. To state the hopefully obvious, those renovations won’t do much good if the shelter closes. There needs to be conversation about potentially repurposing yet-to-be-used renovation money to help keep the shelter running.
Bangor City Council Chair Cara Pelletier said that Penobscot Community Health Care (PCHC), which currently operates the Hope House, has not approached the council about changing how that pandemic relief money can be used. There is a clear need for a larger discussion about this with PCHC, city and county officials, and maybe even Preble Street. We understand there may be complications about shifting the funding use, but it at least should be explored in a meaningful way, by all parties involved.
City and county leaders, who still have more than $7 million ARPA funds combined to allocate before the end of the year, may be worried about creating a potential funding cliff by supporting one-time operational costs like this. We’d suggest, however, that there is no bigger cliff than the one looming now of a potential closure.
“We need the state of Maine to help us with a sustainable long-term plan to adequately fund shelters for the most vulnerable people in the state,” Pelletier told O’Brien.
Absolutely. There should be zero doubt about that statement. This is not an issue for Bangor or Penobscot County to address on their own. But with millions of ARPA dollars left in city and county coffers, and the shelter closuring looming, there should also be no doubt that more of these existing resources should be dedicated to this clear existing need. State, county and city shares of opioid settlement money could also be on the table, too.
No matter what happens in the next few months with this shelter, state and local officials will ultimately have a shared responsibility for that outcome. Time is running out, and disagreement about who is paying their fair share must not bog down the critical work of keeping this shelter open.
