Bangor city councilors plan to give the remaining funding needed to reopen the Together Place Peer Run Recovery Center.
The center, which serves community members struggling with mental illness and addiction, closed its drop-in program and low-cost meals program at the end of July due to a funding shortfall. The reopening of those services will restore a key resource for mitigating the effects of Bangor’s homelessness crisis.
Members of the Bangor council’s Government Operations Committee voted Wednesday night to recommend a $7,000 contribution of opioid settlement funds for the Together Place, which would put the organization across the finish line for its $220,000 fundraising goal.
The full council is likely to approve that recommendation on Monday. The Together Place will be able to reopen within two to seven days of the funding approval, according to the nonprofit’s leaders.
The group is “incredibly excited to get back to work,” Shea Mullaney, its board president, said following the vote. “The way that everybody in the community has stepped up is tremendous. Private donors, foundations, churches, different organizations, Penobscot County, the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation and now the city of Bangor.”
The Together Place initially asked the city for a much larger sum but ended up raising most of that balance through private donations, including a $50,000 gift from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation.
The Penobscot County Commissioners decided last week to give $7,000 to the center, on the condition that Bangor matched those funds.
The center at 2 Second St. was previously open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and provided low-cost hot lunches and a slate of recovery support groups for between 20 and 50 people a day, according to the organization.
Councilors at the meeting said they were impressed by the nonprofit’s diligence in fundraising and providing the city with a detailed plan for how they would use the funds, and said they were in favor of supporting a recovery-focused program like the Together Place.
The organization’s leaders seemingly won over Councilor Carolyn Fish, who was initially skeptical due to worries about the center’s financial responsibility but ultimately supported the funding request Wednesday. Fish said she was happy to see that the group’s leaders had taken some steps toward better fiscal management.
“I do want to see you stay open,” she said.
Fish voted to send the funding recommendation to a full council vote on Monday alongside councilors Angela Walker and Susan Deane. Councilor Wayne Mallar voted no, saying he took issue with the county asking the city to support a matching grant. Councilor Michael Beck recused himself due to a conflict of interest.
Councilors Susan Faloon and Daniel Carson also indicated that while they’re not voting members of the committee, they were in support of the funding request, indicating that the measure will likely have the required support to pass the full council vote next week.