Task force hears opinions to help the homeless Group eyes more housing, seeks elimination of need for shelters

BANGOR – An adequate amount of housing for financially, mentally and physically disabled people may come from private sector donations.

The first public forum for the Region III Adult Mental Health Task Force Implementation Group on Thursday night sought information from the public on housing programs currently working successfully and ideas on how to create housing for those programs to expand.

In information acquired by the task force, 291 people use homeless shelters in areas outside of Bangor and Portland in the state of Maine. Several hundred additional people use homeless shelters in the two cities.

The goal of the task force is to create enough housing to empty the homeless shelters.

“Maine has the seventh oldest housing stock in the United States,” task force commissioner Lynn Duby said. “This is a fairly big undertaking. This issue isn’t just about finding housing; it’s making housing and marrying the appropriate services to that housing to fit the needs of the individuals who need that housing.”

While the task force’s priority is to create housing for individuals with mental disabilities, the group is also looking at providing housing for people with physical and financial disabilities who are unable to afford adequate housing.

One of the top solutions discussed during Thursday’s public forum involved a tax credit program.

The tax credit program would allow individual entities to contribute money to the construction of adequate housing. The contributors receive tax credits in return for their donations.

Through coordination with the appropriate facilities, the new home is then staffed with the personnel to fit the needs of the tenants.

Community Health and Counseling Services currently operates a building in Orono that was created through a tax credit program. The building houses about 10 people.

“We need more private sector dollars to build our infrastructure,” said Kay Carter, director of Adult Mental Health Services at CHCS. “It is critical for Maine’s housing stock to be developed.”

The task force has completed half of a study to find the number of low-income people without adequate housing in Maine. The study will divulge what kinds of resources people are in need of for their respective disability, task force co-chairman Lee Umphrey said.

In order for the problem to be resolved, the city of Bangor will need to lead the way, City Councilor Gerry Palmer said.

“Affordable housing is at a premium and is difficult to find. We’re trying to do a lot as a city to increase those housing stocks,” Palmer said. “Whenever you can get private resources working on this, I think it’s terrific.”

Duby said: “The general feeling is that we do not want to set up large projects because it ghettoizes people with disabilities. Cities have had disastrous results with projects. … The buildings were destroyed and gangs preyed on the vulnerable. And we also don’t want to segregate people like that.”

Palmer agreed with Duby’s assessment, adding that placing a large number of people with disabilities in an area defeats the ultimate purpose of helping those people to become a part of society.

The meeting was the first of several public forums that will be held by the task force in the coming months as it gathers the public’s opinions and ideas on how to deal with the pressing issue.

“The great thing about this has been the sense of unity that has formed,” said Duby. “For the kinds of housing strategies that we need to pursue, we need to bring other entities into this. Building our housing stock is one of most critical issues we need to address.”