InterMed donates $30,000 to help solve Greater Portland homelessness crisis

This time last year, Allison Edwards was living in fear and uncertainty, putting off necessary car repairs and skipping meals so her 3-year-old daughter could eat. Only a few months later, Edwards is hopeful for the future. The 29-year-old is taking better care of herself, easily makes rent payments, fixes her car when necessary and will graduate this spring from Southern Maine Community College and enter the workforce. She can even send her daughter to gymnastics class, something she wanted to do for years. “I didn’t think it would ever be possible for our family that my daughter would be enrolled in any extracurricular activities,” Edwards said. “It makes me feel good as a mom that I can provide for her. It makes me feel like I’m doing something right.”

Computers and internet access will be loaned out in a collaborative project aimed at overcoming a key obstacle to employment. Two Portland organizations are working to combat one of the challenges faced by formerly unhoused people who are looking for work – a lack of internet and computer access. The Quality Housing Coalition and the Greater Portland Council of Governments plan to distribute 100 refurbished laptops to people who are enrolled in the coalition’s Project Home to Profession program, which secures permanent housing for homeless people and provides them with employment services. “Almost all job applications and opportunities are online,” said Clara McCool, who manages GPCOG’s Regional Broadband Program, which is funding the laptop project through the Maine Connectivity Authority.

Maine housing agencies are incentivizing landlords to provide homes to vulnerable tenants, a strategy that is working but remains difficult to scale up due to a shortage of overall units. Groups from Caribou to South Portland are offering local landlords financial guarantees and logistical support if they offer units to Maine families experiencing housing instability and homelessness. Two groups using this strategy, Portland’s Quality Housing Coalition and the Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter of Waterville, have found permanent homes for just under 200 families – many of whom have experienced chronic homelessness – this year alone. Project Home, the Portland group’s flagship program, has an applicant pool of over 2,000 families waiting to be matched with a unit right now. That underscores the short supply of housing statewide that is driving up costs and limiting how far they can reach, although policymakers largely see them as successes to date. “Given that we’re in the middle of a shortage, and we will be for a while, probably, I think this is probably one of the best tools we have,” Erik Jorgensen, director of government relations at MaineHousing, the state’s housing authority, said.