9/26: Portland City council considers declaring state of emergency to add beds at homeless services center
Portland City Council is considering declaring a state of emergency in order to temporarily add more beds at the Homeless Services Center to serve a growing homeless population in the city. The council held a workshop on Tuesday to look at the plan and advocates gathered outside city hall to protest and urge the council not to move forward with the proposal.
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9/26: Maine's housing crisis contributes to a big increase in student homelessness
The state of Maine is launching a first-of-its-kind program under which schools can financially assist families with rent, utilities and other household expenses. As Maine Public Radio's Robbie Feinberg reports, it comes as the state has seen a huge surge in students experiencing homelessness.
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9/25: Maine on Track for Record Level of Eviction Filings This Year
Data from the Maine Judicial Branch shows that evictions in the state have increased dramatically since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, and this year’s numbers are on track to rival the 15-year high reached back in 2014.
The figures, made available from the Maine Judicial Branch, reflect the number of eviction filings made with the courts, as opposed to the number of judgements entered.
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9/25: How the Homelessness Problem in Maine Compares to Other States
About six in 10 of the people experiencing homelessness in 2022 had access to emergency shelters, transitional housing programs, or safe havens, while the remainder were unsheltered. Rates of unsheltered homelessness -- which includes those sleeping on the streets, in abandoned buildings, and in wooded areas -- are also on the rise.
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9/25: Waterville Planning Board to consider 2 plans that would provide 43 apartments
The Planning Board is expected to consider two plans Tuesday that would bring 43 new apartments to Waterville — six in the downtown area and 37 on King Street in the city’s South End.
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9/24: Pilot program to help rural Mainers repair homes damaged in Presidentially Declared Disaster Areas
The federal government is expanding a pilot program intended to help low income residents in rural Maine repair storm damaged homes if they live in Presidentially Declared Disaster Areas.
Department of Agriculture Rural Development Director Rhiannon Hampson says this program is for the state's most vulnerable residents who have fewer resources available to recover from a natural disaster.
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9/23: 10 people displaced after fire at Westbrook apartment building
Crews extinguished the flames and searched the apartment where the fire stated, as well as adjacent units to ensure no one was trapped, Westbrook Professional Firefighters posted on Facebook. Photos on the post show the building was not fully engulfed, with smoke and damage on one side of the building.
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9/22: Maine is lagging in its heat pump goal for low-income homes
Maine had no trouble meeting a 2019 goal of adding 100,000 new heat pumps to homes by 2025, so Gov. Janet Mills unveiled a more aggressive benchmark in July. But an additional, less-talked-about goal of installing 15,000 heat pumps in low-income households by 2025 has been harder to meet. A review of state data show Maine progressed about a third of the way to that goal in the last three years.
9/22: Portland Mayoral Candidates Explain How They Would Tackle the City’s Homelessness Crisis
One of the city’s biggest, most visible problems right now is the homelessness crisis. Both the city and the state have recently dismantled some of the encampments that have been around in Portland. Often though, that just moves people from one encampment to another.
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