Worried that the proposed state budget would drastically limit access to General Assistance funds for some of Maine’s neediest residents, one state representative invited Gov. Lepage to Portland’s epicenter of social services and cleared up a major "drafting error." Upon hearing that the governor’s budget proposal called for limiting General Assistance help to once per … Read more
PORTLAND – Gov. Paul LePage does not intend to limit Mainers to receiving 30 days of general assistance a year, according to spokesman Dan Demeritt. Demeritt made that clarification after LePage met with clients and service providers of Preble Street. The stop was one of several on the governor’s Capitol for a Day program Friday. … Read more
PORTLAND – At the far end of the city’s industrial waterfront, over a 7-foot-tall snowbank, across the railroad tracks and behind a patch of trees and frozen brush, Susie Whittington and Sandy Brown saw footprints heading along the riverbank. "Hello!" Whittington called out as she trudged through knee-deep snow. "Homeless outreach. Anyone out here?" About … Read more
Portland received nearly $3.2 million in federal money for homeless relief, most of it in the form of subsidized housing, officials announced Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced its Continuum of Care grants, which provide permanent and transitional housing to homeless people as well as services including job training, health care, … Read more
PORTLAND – For eight months, Ivelisse Castro spent her nights on a cot in a shelter while she saved her paychecks and waited to qualify for rental assistance. Castro might have waited a lot longer without the help of an aggressive new team of caseworkers who are fighting homelessness in Maine’s largest city. "They’re great," … Read more
