There was a quiet, almost mellow, feel at the new Sullivan Wellness Shelter at the University of Southern Maine on a recent afternoon when I stopped by to check out how things were going there. A few clients were playing cards – at a safe distance, around a large table – a couple others were … Read more
The Preble Street social service agency opened a 50-bed, around-the-clock shelter inside a University of Southern Maine gymnasium to ease overcrowding at the city-run Oxford Street Shelter. Read more…
The University of Southern Maine’s Sullivan Gymnasium will open Friday as a temporary homeless shelter due to the coronavirus outbreak in the state. The University of Maine System partnered with Preble Street to create the 50-bed shelter. Preble Street is operating the shelter with the help of the Maine State Housing Authority and the Maine … Read more
The University of Southern Maine says it will partner with Preble Street to convert the Sullivan Gymnasium on the school’s Portland campus to a temporary 24-hour shelter for people experiencing homelessness. In a press release, USM says the shelter will open as soon as possible, and that it is to stay open as long as social distancing guidelines … Read more
Dr. Ann Marie Lemire, medical director of the Cumberland County Jail, could have given lawmakers a raft of statistics. Instead, she told them a story. About five weeks ago, a man near the end of his sentence was desperately afraid of what his release would mean. He was homeless and was worried that once he was … Read more
They will not call it a shelter. It will be a “healing center” because, when you’re dealing with women whose lives have descended into violence, sexual assault, human trafficking and other traumas, that’s precisely what they need. “They’re the most vulnerable women we serve,” Daniella Cameron, senior director of Teen Services and Anti-Trafficking Services at … Read more
Reducing assistance for poor people in the U.S. is a centerpiece of the budget the Trump administration unveiled Tuesday. It calls for huge cuts to Medicaid, Social Security disability payments, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, food assistance and other anti-poverty programs. It also would pass more responsibility for many of these programs to states and … Read more
Judy Bullard says MaineCare is keeping her alive, and she would be in dire straits if she lost her health insurance and could no longer afford her epilepsy medication. “If I don’t have health care, I will die,” Bullard said. “I need medication not just to live a happy and healthy life, but to stay … Read more
Portland (WGME) – Thousands of Mainers don’t have a place to call home at night. In the winter months many of them turn to emergency shelters, but some of them don’t. It’s hard to imagine but some people are braving the harshest elements Mother Nature has to offer and are sleeping outside. “We find evidence … Read more
PORTLAND (WGME) – It’s a place no one wants or expects to end up – an emergency shelter. Thousands of Mainers are using them and there’s a cost – the human toll and the monetary expense. A night in the shelter is far from comfortable. Clients sleep on mats just inches apart. It can be … Read more
