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A Bangor nonprofit wants to build a village of 120 tiny homes for the city’s homeless population.
Dignity First launched in 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, to create safe, permanent housing. The nonprofit explored a few projects, like bringing a mobile shower unit to Bangor, but none seemed to address the root of people becoming homeless, said Executive Director Jamie Beck, who this year became the group’s first paid employee.
Then it learned of a “community first” model, based on Mobile Loaves and Fishes, an outreach ministry that aids homeless people in Austin, Texas.
The Texas group’s 51-acre Community First! Village for chronically homeless people opened in late 2015 and is home to more than 350 people, which is expected to grow to 500 after an expansion is completed.
The village gets people off the streets and into affordable, permanent housing, Beck said. It surrounds them with support, from “missionals” who live in the village to spaces that encourage community, like outdoor kitchens. Among its facilities are a chapel, dog park, entrepreneurship hub, health center, organic farm, and common areas with restrooms and laundry facilities.
The tiny home village is the latest proposal for how to navigate Bangor’s homelessness crisis, which has proven to be a major challenge for the city. The ambitious project, which Beck estimated would cost more than $10 million, is in its early stages and will need strong backing to come to fruition. But it would make a lasting difference in the lives of homeless people and generate change on a systemic level, she said.
“It is proven to be a successful model not only in Texas, but in other parts of the country,” she said, pointing out the Settled project in St. Paul, Minnesota. “Staying stagnant in things we are doing now isn’t working. So how about we take a chance and try something new for the area, but not completely new, unproven and untested?”
Dignity First wants to build a village with six neighborhoods, each of them including a “hearth center” with shared kitchen and laundry facilities and 20 tiny homes, Beck said. The tiny homes would meet Bangor’s requirements, like having a footprint of no more than 400 square feet.
A village store, gardens and greenhouses, outdoor fitness center, and creative studio where residents can hone their skills and learn new ones are among the concepts outlined on Dignity First’s website. A health center would offer medical services, including those specific to mental health and substance use disorder.
When people are permanently housed, case management and mental health services can be handled more cost-effectively and efficiently, Beck said.
“There is very little chance that anyone will make any positive change to their mental health or their substance use disorder if they don’t have permanent housing,” she said. “This offers a clear and documented way for people to bridge that gap.”
With a tiny home village flourishing in Bangor, area resources wouldn’t be stretched so thin because less time would be spent tracking down homeless people. The intensity and frequency of the services would decrease, she said.
Eventually, the village would feature a bed and breakfast with 10 tiny homes, where guests can stay to learn about the community and volunteer, Beck said. The Community First! Village has an inn offering stays in airstreams, tiny homes and yurts, a concept meant to inspire guests to work with their own homeless neighbors.
Dignity First has drawn ideas from Mobile Loaves and Fishes, but it is tailoring its village designs to the needs of people in Bangor and considering factors like climate and culture in the Northeast. For example, the tiny homes in Texas do not have running water, but they would in Bangor, Beck said.
It is not a faith-based project, though volunteers from area churches are building a demo tiny house on a trailer, which would not be part of the village. John Burton of St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Brewer was formerly a contractor and is leading the work that began in September and is still in progress.
“We know to cast a vision, people want to see something tangible,” Beck said. “This demo tiny house will show people what we are trying to accomplish.”
Dignity First is working on initial designs and site selection with architect and design firm WBRC, a process that will take from four to five months, Beck said. Once it is complete, the nonprofit will have a more firm cost estimate and will launch a capital campaign to fund the project, she said.
Dignity First has applied twice, in June 2022 and May of this year, for Penobscot County’s American Rescue Plan Act dollars, but it did not receive funding, Beck said. It also applied in April for $5 million of Bangor’s ARPA funds, which was the largest request of the 60 applicants and was denied, she said.