Health Services I’ve worked at Preble Street in Portland, Maine, for 26 years and never thought I’d see the day when our social workers are reversing opioid overdoses on a regular basis. In my first 22 years here, we had no overdoses. Zero. Now every eight days we find someone on a bathroom floor, lips blue, not breathing. Preble Street … Read more
Imagine you’re volunteering at the Preble Street soup kitchen in Portland because it’s the holidays and you’re a good person and this is what good people do this time of year. Across the table from you sits a homeless woman. She’s addicted to opioids, and it being the holidays and all, she has what those … Read more
Preble Street Executive Director Mark Swann is a guest on Maine Points. There are many ways to describe Preble Street: drop-in centers, soup kitchens, food pantry, shelters, social work services, supported housing. These descriptions only tell part of the Preble Street story. Marks talks about the many ways Preble Street works to turn hunger and … Read more
When it comes to ballot initiatives, things are not always what they seem. That’s the case with Portland’s Question 2, which would change zoning rules in a way that would lock people out of the process, freeze investment, tangle our city with lawsuits and throw us into chaos for years to come. Portland’s Question 2 … Read more
Refusal to expand Maine’s Medicaid program has left many homeless veterans to suffer in shelters and on the street. Maine has the fifth highest per capita population of veterans in the nation, and Medicaid is essential for veterans. Yet we have repeatedly turned our backs. Veterans are more likely to experience homelessness than the overall population, and … Read more
A recently published article (“Trafficking victims turn to hotline with pleas for help,” Oct. 1) spoke to the horrors of human trafficking and the important efforts of the National Human Trafficking Hotline in reaching survivors. The highest volume of calls coming through the hotline originate from big cities, but trafficking can and does happen everywhere, to women … Read more
New research was released today on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to better understand the effects the program has on Mainers. Two organizations, Maine Equal Justice Partners and Preble Street, partnered to survey families around the state. The report written by a University of Maine Professor found 62-percent of respondents said they would … Read more
Some members of Portland’s homeless population now have a place to call home. Preble Street officially opened the third complex of its Housing First initiative: Huston Commons, an apartment complex designed to help the chronically homeless by providing a permanent place for them to live. Huston Commons houses 30 people who have been living on … Read more
Avesta Housing and Preble Street have opened Portland’s third “housing first” program, Huston Commons, which is now home to 30 formerly homeless individuals with chronic health challenges. Located near Morrill’s Corner at 72 Bishop St. in Portland, Huston Commons was named for Steve Huston, a former Preble Street employee who experienced and overcame homelessness and … Read more
The LePage administration likes to tout how it has reduced the number of people who receive social services in Maine. If fewer people get government help, the thinking goes, the problems that caused their need for help also have been magically eliminated. Data show this isn’t true. Take hunger. A new report from the U.S. Department … Read more
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The mission of Preble Street is to provide accessible barrier-free services to empower people experiencing problems with homelessness, housing, hunger, and poverty, and to advocate for solutions to these problems.
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