Michael McNally has been going to Bangor’s Together Place recovery center every day for seven years.
McNally works as a janitor through the center’s employment connections program, and its director is the person who first helped him get into a rehab center when he needed it.
But as the center faces a possible closure, he worries about where other Together Place members will be able to get lunch if they lose access to the center’s low-cost hot meals it offers every weekday.
For himself, “I just don’t want to go back to drinking,” he said.
The center has been a Bangor institution for years, providing peer support services and a community for people recovering from substance use disorders and mental illness. But the nonprofit will have to close its day space and meal program if it can’t raise $220,000 to keep its services going for another year. The loss would strip Bangor of one of the few places in town that provides a place for homeless residents to go during the day.
Many people have reached out to help since the announcement of an impending closure, according to Hartel. That includes one anonymous donor who offered $50,000, but other donors would still have to supply the remaining $170,000.
The nonprofit has struggled to find funding over the past year after it lost a $300,000 state grant, which Rep. Amy Roeder, D-Bangor, the director at the time, said was due to mistakes she made in the grant application.
Beyond daily meals and recovery support groups, the center is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for anyone to come inside.
“Having the day space, it’s consuming more resources and we’re not getting paid to do it right now,” Joe Hartel, the center’s executive director, said.
Its leadership is “turning over every rock” to find a new, sustainable funding source but hasn’t yet found one, according to board president Shea Mullaney.
It’s a “very, very painful time,” Mullaney said, for the Together Place community, which has existed in some form since 1981. “It’s scary how fast things could fall apart.”
Being a part of the nonprofit has changed his life, Mullaney said. He was one of several members who noted how meaningful it is for them to be part of a group that shares service as a core value. Many Together Place members volunteer at the center, including at the overnight warming shelter it offered this winter with city funding.
Dustin Leet, who has been going there for three years, said that “helping that next person” through volunteering has added a lot to his life.
Leet used to be homeless, but Hartel helped him get into recovery housing and he’s now 18 months sober. He visits the Together Place daily and said its support groups have helped him with his mental health.
“I’m sure I’ll find somewhere else to go, but it won’t be the same,” he said, getting emotional as he talked about the center closing. To him, it’s “more like a family than just a recovery center.”
Leet used to be homeless, but after the Together Place helped him get into recovery housing he’s been sober for 18 months. He visits the Together Place daily and said its support groups have helped him with his mental health. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN
If the center can’t come up with the necessary funding, it will close its daytime space and diner July 31 at 4 p.m. The employment connections program and some peer recovery groups, including Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous, will continue.
The Together Place also has an affiliated affordable housing cooperative with about 10 units for adults who face mental health challenges. That program will continue, but it will lose its property management if the center closes, according to Hartel.
Bangor City Council has recently considered funding a day center for homeless residents. The Together Place’s parent organization, Maine Mental Health Connections, was the only organization that responded to a request for proposals the city issued this month to explore that possibility, but it’s unclear if the council will move forward with the project.
Another nonprofit, the Health Equity Alliance, used to offer a day center before the organization folded two years ago.
Since the bid process for the day center ended, the city’s public health department is exploring potential funding options before bringing the results back to the council — a discussion that has not yet been scheduled, according to City Manager Carollynn Lear.
The request asked for information about how much it would cost for a local organization to run a low-barrier day center with one meal per day, snacks, phone charging, wifi, and access to healthcare and social services. Maine Mental Health Connections’ bid estimated that it would cost nearly $530,000 to offer those services five days per week and more than $750,000 to do it seven days per week.
That’s more than double the $200,000 rough estimate that city staff initially shared with councilors.