Bruce Hews thinks Bangor needs to get creative to solve its homelessness crisis.
Hews was hired two weeks ago as the city’s new homelessness response coordinator, after working for a year as a housing navigator for the city.
In that role, one project he worked on was matching older adults with roommates and landlords to create shared living spaces, he said. Shared living can be more affordable for residents on fixed incomes who may be at risk of losing their housing, and it offers more freedom than assisted living while still fostering a supportive community, according to Hews.
“When you have a three- or four-bedroom out there and they’re sitting empty because people aren’t renting them, why not utilize them to be able to house three people?” Hews said.
It’s these sort of creative solutions he thinks the city can implement to get more people housed and keep them off the streets.
Hews steps into the role at a time when homelessness remains a key concern for city officials and service providers are strained amid increasing demand and rising costs. Bangor’s city council named creating a comprehensive strategy to address homelessness a top priority for the coming year.
Hews’ predecessor, Jena Jones, resigned in November after just a year and a half in the role. The position is funded by federal pandemic relief dollars, meaning that the funding expires at the end of 2026.
Before joining the city’s staff, Hews worked for about 15 years at the Hope House, Bangor’s only low-barrier homeless shelter.
“I got to really know people’s situations and why they were in those situations,” Hews said of his work there. “And then also help them maybe get past some of those hiccups, some of those barriers, and help them grow from whatever things that they were fighting at that time.”
Hews has “kept dozens of people housed just in the past year” since he started working for the city, according to Jennifer Gunderman, the city’s director of public health and community services.
Hews also brings personal experiences to his work that have helped him understand people in the middle of the overlapping crises of homelessness and addiction in Bangor, he said.
“I’m a recovering addict myself — I got sober back in 2007,” said Hews, who has lived in Bangor his whole life.
“My mother actually dropped me off at the Hope House and gave me that tough love speech and said, you know, I love you very dearly, but you need to kinda figure this out. And I bless her every day for that,” he said.
After going through the 30-day addiction program the Hope House offered at the time, Hews decided he wanted to work there.
“I’ve been blessed to be able to give back what was given to me and be able to help and support people through the toughest time in their life,” he said.
In his new position, Hews said he’ll be able to “look at the whole picture” of homelessness in the city. In his view, the city already has a lot of groups doing important work to help homeless people, and his job will involve improving and coordinating that process.
“Right now, I think there’s a lot of people that are just not on the same page,” he said.
The homelessness coordinator role is meant to focus on communicating between various homeless resources at the city, regional and state levels and identify where there are gaps, according to a job description provided by the city.
Some city councilors have said they don’t think the city utilized the role as well as it could have in its first iteration.
Councilor Michael Beck has said he felt like Jones, who previously held the position, “kind of got put in a position where she was having to do ad hoc case management and be in the weeds all the time” as opposed to working on higher-level strategies.
Hews will play a key role in helping develop a strategic plan for the city’s government to address homelessness — a task city councilors have been discussing for months.
“To let [Hews] take all of his knowledge and apply it to a system-wide response, I think we’ll start seeing some improvements,” Beck said.
One of his biggest goals, Hews said, is “to hopefully work with everyone to be able to make it so at least we don’t have people sleeping on our streets.” That could mean getting people into a warming center, a homeless shelter or more long-term housing.
“We have ordinances for certain things, and we probably should hold to those ordinances,” Hews said, referring to city rules that prohibit public camping, when asked about his approach to the homeless encampments that frequently pop up in the city.
One encampment by the railroad tracks along the Penobscot River, which was once home to about 40 people, was cleared in December. Some of the people living there had vouchers but had not yet found apartments.
In order to keep more people inside, the city will need to create more shared and transitional housing, Hews said. That will help free up more space in shelters, which will in turn enable more people to get off the streets or out of encampments.
The Hope House has been consistently at capacity in recent months. The Bangor Area Homeless Shelter, a higher barrier shelter, has frequently been near capacity as well, according to city officials.
In his first few weeks on the job, Hews said he’s been spending time listening to members of Bangor’s homeless community. He also wants to meet landlords and business owners — and thinks finding common ground and listening to the entire Bangor community will be a key part of his job.
“We need to build something that is going to help create things for the people that are unhoused, but we also have to help create a safe community for everyone,” he said.
Already as the city’s housing navigator, Hews said he’s done a lot of work building relationships with landlords.
“I deal with a lot of landlords that are willing to give people opportunities, it’s just, there’s little things here and there, I think, that we could all work on to make it a better quality of experience,” he said.
In a city that already lacks sufficient affordable housing, it can be difficult for homeless people to find landlords who are willing to rent to them, even after they’ve secured a housing voucher.
Hews also thinks the city could add more support for people entering housing, and that building relationships with landlords will be a key part of that work.
Homeless residents have emphasized that they need that support to help them stay housed once they find a place to live.
“I think everyone deserves housing,” Hews said. At the same time, he added, it will take a lot of work to get people who have been living outside for a long time ready for such a change.
“My hope is that we can really create a community where we can help the unhoused without judgment,” Hews said.