Maine
Initiative to bring unhoused population to ‘zero’ gathers data in Bangor
A bunch tasked with enacting a statewide technique to assist Mainers experiencing homelessness is gathering information on the traits of that inhabitants.
It’s the primary section in a long-range plan, Constructed For Zero, aimed to deliver Maine’s — and Bangor’s — swelling unhoused inhabitants to “practical zero,” the place homelessness is uncommon and temporary.
Whereas the knowledge gathering step will doubtless take greater than a 12 months to finish, Maine might be the primary state to have strong information on its unhoused inhabitants at a statewide stage.
For months, Bangor officers have been relying on the trouble to rein in its homelessness disaster, however Constructed For Zero and MaineHousing representatives instructed metropolis councilors final week the initiative isn’t a disaster response measure.
“Proper now, Bangor is experiencing a disaster state of affairs with its unsheltered inhabitants,” mentioned Lauren Bustard, MaineHousing’s senior director of homeless initiatives. “This long-term technique method will not be going to be what Bangor wants proper now to handle the disaster.”
In the meantime, Bangor’s homelessness disaster spurred a federal catastrophe aid workforce from the U.S. Division of Housing and City Growth to return to Bangor to quickly rehouse unsheltered folks.
MaineHousing joined Constructed For Zero, created by the nationwide nonprofit Group Options, in February 2022 and established 9 service hubs all through the state. Group Well being and Counseling Providers was awarded the service hub contract for the Bangor space — which is a part of the area masking Penobscot and Piscataquis counties.
Constructed For Zero’s methodology contains gathering strong information on an space’s unhoused inhabitants and their wants whereas enhancing coordination amongst social service suppliers so unsheltered residents can entry assist.
“We’re in search of information not so we will level fingers and place blame, however so we will enhance and be taught,” mentioned Erin Healy, technique lead for Group Options’ Constructed for Zero initiative. “We wish information so we will say, ‘We thought this was going to work nevertheless it didn’t, so let’s throw that out and take a look at one thing new.’”
The info-gathering course of occurring in Bangor is usually invisible, which leads residents to consider nothing is being completed, Healy mentioned. This may be irritating for each residents and the outreach coordinators who’re gathering data.
“If there are folks dwelling in your parks, it doesn’t matter that individuals are gathering information,” Healy mentioned. “It’s very troublesome to translate what we’re doing — it’s not a bumper sticker method.”
Whereas Constructed for Zero is a confirmed method to make sweeping, long-lasting change, it isn’t designed to assist unhoused folks instantly and doesn’t create housing in Maine, Healy mentioned. She additionally acknowledged that housing Mainers is particularly troublesome now because of the shortage of vacant models.
“That is many years of disinvestment in inexpensive housing that’s coming dwelling to roost, and it’s going to take some time to construct our method out of it,” she mentioned.
Housing building efforts have ramped up throughout the state to handle the housing crunch with extra models, mentioned Lauren Bustard, MaineHousing’s senior director of homeless initiatives.
“MaineHousing, up till a number of years in the past, produced about 250 models of inexpensive housing a 12 months,” Bustard mentioned. “Proper now, we’ve got 3,677 models in our pipeline.”
Lots of these building initiatives have been stalled by labor shortages and provide chain disruptions that make constructing supplies each harder to return by and costly, Bustard mentioned.
Healy mentioned she hopes the knowledge gathering section might be full in about six months, and Maine would be the first state to have high quality information on a statewide stage. That data will then information native and statewide investments aimed toward increasing housing, as the information will present what’s most wanted and what wants are already being met.