2024 was a year full of many difficult challenges and lessons but also a year full of progress on important issues. After 50 years, we know how important it is to recognize the positive while still holding space to learn from the obstacles we’ve faced.
As 2024 comes to a close, Preble Street looks ahead to its 50th anniversary in 2025. In 1975, Preble Street began as a neighborhood resource center, supported by only a few social work interns from the University of Southern Maine (USM) and led by founder Joe Kreisler, a USM professor. Today, it is a leading social work agency in Maine, operating the largest emergency food service program in Northern New England, which serves over 10,000 people experiencing food insecurity every year, and over a dozen low-barrier programs for individuals and families throughout Maine. The progress we’ve made as a community in 2024 shows the evolution of the agency over those 50 years to respond to changing needs and Preble Street’s positive impact across the state. Highlights this year range from important legislative wins in Augusta to expansions of services across the agency and Maine.
The support and love of our community is truly what makes this work possible. We are deeply grateful and express our heartfelt thanks for supporting the people we serve and Preble Street. We wish you all a happy and safe 2025!
Ongoing funding for low-barrier shelters
Thanks to a joint advocacy effort from Preble Street, Milestone Recovery, Penobscot Community Health Care, Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter, and the Maine Council of Churches, Governor Janet Mills signed into law three years of $2.5M in annual funding — a total of $7.5M — to directly support emergency low-barrier shelters. This funding will be incredibly impactful for Maine’s five privately operated, low-barrier shelters. Preble Street currently operates two of the five low-barrier shelters in Maine, Florence House and the Elena’s Way Wellness Shelter, with plans to take over operations of the Hope House Health & Living Center in Bangor in 2025 (more on that below).
Low-barrier shelters in Maine face a growing yearly budget deficit, and this critical funding will help address this gap and keep shelters open and staffed for Mainers across the state. Everyone needs safe and dignified shelter. Preble Street will continue to advocate for support for low-barrier shelters and educate people about the critical role they play in healthy and thriving communities.
Preble Street to assume operations of Bangor’s Hope House Emergency Shelter
"The loss of Hope House would've been felt statewide."
The Hope House Emergency Shelter is a low-barrier 56-bed emergency shelter in Bangor. It is an essential resource, as it is one of only five privately-operated, adult low-barrier shelters in the state of Maine and the only low-barrier shelter north of Waterville.
Penobscot Community Health Care (PCHC) was set to close Hope House in fall 2024 unless a new provider could take over operations. Thanks to investment from the state to directly support low-barrier emergency shelters for the next three years, Preble Street will confidently and professionally assume operations of Hope House in February 2025 to prevent its closure. In making this decision, Preble Street thoroughly assessed the potential impacts for the agency as well as the devastating impact the closure of Hope House would have on the state.
After considerable planning and fundraising, construction on Preble Street’s Food Security Hub (FSH) began in the spring of 2024. Today, construction has been completed on the new loading dock at the FSH, which will allow for larger, more efficient deliveries and is now ongoing in the new FSH kitchen. A 5,000 square-foot commercial kitchen, this new space will increase the efficiency and safety of meal production, bolster our efforts to connect with local farmers for fresh food and preservation of harvest, and vastly improve Preble Street’s capacity to store and handle food donations.
Once complete, the Food Security Hub will be able to make up to 10,000 meals per day and have the processing and freezer capacity to store up to 50,000 frozen, prepared meals for future emergencies. Those meals, in addition to the thousands of meals the FSH can produce daily, will be a critical component of Maine’s emergency preparedness plans.
Veterans Housing Services beats housing goals
The Preble Street Veterans Housing Services team has had an incredibly successful year, far surpassing their grant year goals and achieving close to a rate of 1 Veteran housed per day in September.
This past year, Preble Street’s Veteran Housing Services (VHS) program helped house over 270 Veterans and served nearly 600, connecting them to housing, employment, food assistance, and other resources. In September alone, VHS connected 28 Veterans to housing. That’s more Veterans than they’ve ever housed before in one month! These numbers represent real people who have been helped during one of the toughest times in their lives as well as hours, days, and weeks of hard work from the incredibly dedicated VHS team, who show up with compassion and love.
Teen Services launches first Site-based Transitional Living Program for Maine
In April of this year, Preble Street Teen Services opened a new site-based Transitional Living Program (TLP) for youth ages 16-24 in Biddeford. This program is a first for Southern Maine, as it is the first low-barrier and site-based Transitional Living Program (TLP) for youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness in the area. The building will have a dedicated office space for case workers, with an on-site presence from a Preble Street caseworker every day. This program will run for a length of two years, serving a total of 12 youth ages 16-24.
Thanks to the contributions and partnership of Governor Mills, the Biddeford Housing Authority, and MaineHousing for helping to make this program possible.
Rapid Re-Housing expands service to Lewiston-Auburn
In August 2024, Preble Street officially expanded its Rapid Re-Housing program to Lewiston-Auburn, enrolling their first client in early September. Rapid Re-Housing is an evidence-based and housing first intervention designed to help individuals quickly exit homelessness, return to housing in the community, and not become homeless again in the future. Each participant works with a caseworker to create a housing plan to connect to permanent housing as quickly as possible.
The goal of the program is to serve 30 households and 35 individuals in the next year. The program office is located at 984 ½ Sabattus Street in Lewiston, alongside Preble Street staff working in Veterans Housing Services, Anti-Trafficking Services, and Teen Services.
More highlights from 2024
Other highlights from this year include the TD Beach to Beacon 10k Road Race, receiving the 2024 Social Work Agency of the Year award from the National Alliance of Social Workers Maine Chapter, the highly successful Neighbors in Need fundraising drive, and Preble Street’s Second Conference on Homelessness: Solutions Start with ME.
Social work is heart work
This year, the National Association of Social Workers’ Maine Chapter named Preble Street the 2024 Social Work Agency of the Year. Preble Street’s Vice President of Social Work, Andrew Bove, accepted the award on behalf of the agency. Below are the remarks he gave in his acceptance speech. My name is Andrew Bove, and I
Conference on Homelessness: Solutions Start with ME
“By being present here today, as well as by paying attention every day, by thoughtfully connecting the dots between the tragedy of homelessness and the racial inequities, social determinants of health, gentrification pressures, and widening economic inequities that cause homelessness, you are the group of people I am most optimistic about creating the change that
Thank you Beach to Beacon community!
Preble Street Teen Services was honored to be the beneficiary of the 26th running of the TD Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race in Cape Elizabeth, Maine on Saturday, August 3, 2024. We are proud of each and every runner for ‘running their own race’ including the 55 members of Team Preble Street! From the youth who woke up that
