Grants For Emergency Warming Shelters Announced

AUGUSTA – MaineHousing  announced it has awarded just over $1 million ($1,075,000)  in state funding for 13 overnight warming shelters across Maine.

From Aroostook County to York County these resources will keep Mainers warm, north to south through the coming cold days of winter. 

Funding for these warming shelters is a portion of the $21 million in emergency funds approved by the Legislature and Governor Janet Mills in January that are aimed at helping those in heating and housing crisis.

“With the support of the Winter Emergency Energy Relief Plan, these shelters will protect our most vulnerable citizens and help them stay warm throughout winter,” said Gov. Mills. “I am grateful to the communities that have responded to this important need, and I thank MaineHousing for its swift action to distribute this important financial support. My Administration is committed to working with MaineHousing, the Legislature, communities, and others to further address the need for both short-term emergency housing and attainable, long-term housing across Maine.”

Understanding the need and urgency for these services, MaineHousing’s leadership and staff, along with collaborating partners in state and local government as well as the non-profit sector set these funds to action in record time.

Within nine days of the bill that provided these funds becoming law, two Notices of Funding Availability were released, one of which was for warming shelters. Proposals were due at 5 p.m. on Friday, February 3 and in less than seven days from that deadline grant awards are being announced and the funding to open and keep open these facilities is being released.

“Getting this help to where it is needed most compelled MaineHousing’s leadership team to move swiftly in reviewing and approving these warming shelter proposals,” MaineHousing Director Daniel Brennan said. “We are grateful for the support Gov. Mills and the Legislature have shown in helping Maine people deal with not only the weather but with historic inflationary costs as well. The broad bipartisan support for these efforts is also a reflection of the generosity of Maine people themselves. Mainers take care of each other whenever they can and that’s what these facilities are all about.”

The following warming shelters will be funded through April of 2023:

• Gathering Place, Brunswick
• Amistad, Wiscassett
• Aroostook Mental Health Services, Houlton
• Aroostook Mental Health Services, Calais
• Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter, Waterville 
• Union St. Brick Church, Bangor
• Bangor Area Homeless Shelter, Bangor
• Augusta Warming Shelter, Augusta
• York County Shelter, Alfred
• Town of Monson, Monson
• State Street Church, Portland
• Maine Immigrants Rights Center, Portland

Greater Portland Family Promise, Portland

One additional warming shelter, opened in Ellsworth by Healthy Acadia at its INSPIRE Recovery Center in December of 2022 and funded with donations and funding from a previous appropriation to MaineHousing by the Legislature will also remain open through April.