Adult Services

The first group of students to participate in Southern Maine Community College’s new Hospitality and Customer Service Rising Stars Academy has graduated with skills that are in high demand by the hospitality trade in Maine. The academy, based on the South Portland campus, provided 96 hours of entry-level hospitality training to the unemployed and underemployed … Read more

After she makes 16 beds at the hotel where she works, Lori Godin boards a bus, waits in line at a Portland homeless shelter, and if she’s lucky, she will get to make one more. Standing in the cold, Godin adjusted the straps of her backpack, the one that she’s lived out of for two … Read more

PORTLAND (WGME) — Portland’s City Council voted unanimously Monday to create a task force that will assess Portland’s Oxford Street Homeless Shelter. “I don’t think any of us would build a system the way our current system is set up today,” City Councilor Ed Suslovic said Tuesday. “It’s a chance to step back and say … Read more

PORTLAND – The future of city homeless shelters will be examined and evaluated by a new task force created by a unanimous vote of city councilors Monday. Councilors also approved easements to allow installation of natural gas lines to the Portland Technology Park off Rand Road near the Maine Turnpike, but postponed signing a two-part … Read more

The Portland City Council on Monday night agreed to study consolidating, expanding and privatizing the city’s Oxford Street Homeless Shelter, currently Maine’s largest and only municipally run shelter. The word "privatizing" often brings to mind situations where governments hand over the management of public institutions to private corporations, under the auspice that the corporations can … Read more

Mark Swann, executive director of Preble Street in Portland, said that on any given night the state’s 42 shelters are housing roughly 1,000 Mainers. "We desperately need your help," Swann told lawmakers Monday. "We’re turning people away each night. Shelter directors, I can tell you, we all hold our breath knowing how dangerously understaffed we … Read more

AUGUSTA, Maine – Homeless advocates from across the state lined up to support legislation that would provide an additional $3.5 million a year for homeless shelters. Advocates say they’re not sure that additional funding is enough to handle the demands facing 42 shelters across the state that have about 1,000 people a night seeking a … Read more

Editor: At 8 p.m. last night it was 12 degrees. And it’s March – not January. Together we’ve experienced one of the longest, most frigid, and snowiest winters in history. I don’t really want to talk about the weather. But I do want each of us to stop for a second and think about a … Read more

PORTLAND, Maine – Next week, the city of Portland is expected to submit a formal response to a recent state audit that strongly criticized aspects of its General Assistance program. That response will include a more thorough screening process of homeless shelter residents’ financial assets. The city looks set to adopt a number of proposals … Read more

PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — A city committee will consider changes to Portland’s general assistance program after a state audit found violations. The state reimburses all cities and towns for a portion of general assistance spending. Portland includes the operating costs for its emergency shelter, but the state wants the city to bill based on … Read more