The parent organization of one of Bangor’s two adult homeless shelters is looking for a partner to take over ownership and operations of the emergency shelter.
Growing financial losses in recent years due to increasing need and unsteady funding have forced Penobscot Community Health Care to sell the emergency shelter portion of the Hope House Health and Living Center, according to Lori Dwyer, PCHC president and CEO.
The Hope House on Corporate Drive is Bangor’s only low-barrier shelter, meaning criminal background checks, income verification, program participation, sobriety and identification are not required for a person to stay there.
The shelter has capacity for 56 people, Dwyer said, with 44 dorm room beds and 12 overflow mats, and it’s soon expected to add another dozen beds.
In the nearly 13 years since PCHC took over the Hope House from Northern Light Acadia Hospital, the number of people experiencing homelessness, mental health challenges, substance use disorder and other related challenges has risen dramatically, Dwyer said.
The growing number of people seeking help is further exacerbated by Maine’s aging population and the higher level of need shelter workers see from people accessing resources.
“It’s not only that there are more people experiencing issues and people who are unhoused, but those people have really high needs,” Dwyer said. “It takes more resources and more support to be able to care for them and move them into a place of housing and better health.”
While PCHC’s first priority is to care for people in the shelter, Dwyer said they’re unable to do that adequately when seeing years of “sizable losses” without consistent funding.
While running the shelter has always resulted in PCHC breaking even or seeing financial loss, Dwyer said that pattern was manageable until the COVID-19 pandemic hit about three years ago.
“When you combine relatively flat funding from state sources with the rate of inflation and the acuity of the needs of the population, you get this perfect storm of factors that make it untenable and unsustainable for us to operate a low-barrier shelter effectively,” Dwyer said.
The shelter alone is projected to lose more than $600,000 by the end of this year, Dwyer said. Next year, it is projected to lose more than $800,000.
That financial loss also comes at a time when the shelter is already understaffed, employees are underpaid, the facility needs substantial repairs and updates, and the organization doesn’t have the spare funding to support additional training, Dwyer said.
While PCHC hopes to shift the emergency shelter’s operations to another organization, it would continue to operate the Hope House clinic and the transitional housing available on the same campus as the shelter.
The ownership and operation transition could take up to a year to complete, according to PCHC.
PCHC will also work with partner organizations during the ownership transition to improve the funding formula for shelters, especially low-barrier shelters. Doing this, Dwyer said, will make operating the Hope House more sustainable for the next owner.
Dwyer said she hopes the upcoming expansion and renovation to the Hope House will continue regardless of the ownership transition, as it’s “critical to the safe and efficient operation of the shelter.”
The project, funded by nearly $2.8 million in pandemic relief money from the city, is expected to add 12 beds. The renovation will also improve the building’s security, infection control, kitchen facilities, group meeting space and other services.
