Presque Isle, Maine (WAGM) – Recently passed bill, LD698, will provide funds to shelters across the state of Maine, including the Homeless Service of Aroostook. $4.473 million will be split up between shelters in Maine for a one-time payment this year. But this was not how the bill was originally written or proposed.
The original version of the bill would have provided $5,000,000 each year for a total of two years to be spread between all the shelters in the state. The change was made due to how tight this year’s budget was.
“If it were passed as written, then it would have been $5,000,000 this year and next year in the biennial budget,” says Kari Bradstreet, executive director with the Homeless Services of Aroostook.
Even with the change, Bradstreet says the bill will play a huge role in their service staying consistent without any decreases. MaineHousing will start distributing the funds this month. The amount that each shelter gets will be based on its available capacity
“It’s a formula based on how many beds you have in your shelter program, and it’s dispersed accordingly. So the amounts to each shelter will vary. We are looking at probably about $180,000 for homeless services,” says Bradstreet.
The money will assist in the operation of the shelter, going towards utilities, food, payroll, and paying a loan of around $40,000 from the city of Presque Isle.
“If it wasn’t for the city stepping in and agreeing to help us short term, I don’t know where we’d be at. However, the financial component of the assistance the agreement was that we would pay the city back any funds that we used with 30 days of receiving the money from the state. So that money will be repaid to the city and the partnership as far as working collaboratively towards addressing homelessness in the community, all of that is going to remain the same,” says Bradstreet.
Although the one-time payment does help, Bradstreet says it is only meant to get them through one year. To ensure a long future for the services at the shelter, Bradstreet is working on other means of funding.
“Our next steps are to talk to our federal leadership, Senator Collins, we are going to set up some meetings and start looking at what we need to, to make sure the federal level stays funded and doesn’t get decreased. And then we are also moving forward with county conversations as well as municipality conversations,” says Bradstreet.
Bradstreet says she is concerned about the future of the shelter and that shelters all over the state of Maine share that concern.
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