Photo: MTA/JP Chan
By Lee Burnett
A housing consortium will receive an infusion of funding this winter to maintain operations at the family homeless shelter in Sanford.
The Mills administration this week awarded $2.3 million to support a dozen warming centers across the state. Sanford is due to receive $142,000 to support 16 beds at the family shelter operated by York County Shelters in cooperation with Sanford Housing Authority and the City of Sanford.
The state is aiming the funding at agencies that provide overnight shelter during the winter months to people living on the street, according to a press release.
“For folks facing a housing emergency or homelessness during the winter, these grants can make sure they have a roof over their heads and a place to sleep at night,” according to Gov. Janet Mills.
Typically, agencies set up recliners, called “zero gravity chairs,” in a common room, where homeless people can get out of the cold overnight.
“Overnight warming centers are an important resource that provide a much-needed solution for many people when homeless shelters fill up and temperatures drop,” said Dean Klein, executive director of Maine’s Continuum of Care, which oversees the state’s homeless response system. “They are a reprieve from the cold for those experiencing homelessness or for those without adequate heat in their homes and can also help connect families and individuals to other resources or programs to help secure and stabilize their housing.”
The funding coming to Sanford will be used in a different way, according to City Manager Steven Buck.
“It assures the continued operation of the family shelter, which is already operating,” he said. The funds can be used “depending on what the need is. There is flexibility,” he said.
The family shelter is one of the programs that was maintained when York County Shelter Programs suspended programs last May. The agency closed a homeless center in Alfred that had served 37 adults and asked for help in maintaining other services. York County government took over the food pantry in Alfred. The Brothers of Christian Instruction has assumed responsibility for the bakery on Shaker Hill in Alfred. Volunteer staffers are keeping open Books ReVisited bookstore in Sanford.
York County Shelter Programs operated a warming center at the former Lafayette School two winters ago, but did not receive state funding to operate one last year.
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