During our 50 years in operation, Preble Street has had to adapt to changing needs and a shifting landscape many times. Never was this truer than in the days, months, and years that followed March 16, 2020.
Five years ago this month, while the world was urged to stay home, a question loomed over staff and leadership at Preble Street. What about all of the people without a home? How can we continue to provide key services to our community while keeping everyone safe? Closing our doors was never an option, so in collaboration with community partners and the CDC, we put together an evolving plan that ensured we would continue to keep people fed, sheltered, and safe. This would not have been possible without our heroic staff and volunteers, who showed up each and every day. Through this evolution, many new Preble Street programs were born, including the Street Outreach Collaborative, Rapid Re-Housing, Elena’s Way, and the Food Security Hub.
Preble Street has never closed its doors and never will. Just like we did in 2020, we will continue to adapt to meet the needs of our community in an ever-evolving world.
While we learned many lessons throughout the pandemic, two of the biggest were:
- Emergency shelters play a critically important role in a community’s public health and need to be smaller, wide open, ensure a welcoming and calm environment, and be staffed by social work professionals.
- People should be able to access food safely and consistently where they live, where they’re staying, or where other needs are met.
As social distancing guidelines emerged, it became clear that the shelter situation in Portland – where guests slept on mats 6 inches apart – could not continue. In early April 2020, Preble Street partnered with the University of Southern Maine and MaineHousing to open the Sullivan Wellness Shelter, a temporary, 24-hour, 50-bed shelter that met social distancing guidelines. Here, each guest had their own bed instead of having to leave each morning and line up hoping for a bed each night. They were able to spend their day at the shelter, working with a social worker on housing, employment, and health goals or engaging in quiet activities. The transformation we saw in these guests over a few short months was astounding and taught us what emergency shelters should look like.
Inspired, we immediately began working on a permanent wellness shelter and opened Elena’s Way in 2022. The Elena’s Way Wellness Shelter is a 24-hour, service-inclusive, and trauma-informed emergency shelter for individuals experiencing homelessness that is grounded in social work and medical best practices.
Shelters were not the only program requiring changes. Before March 2020, Preble Street served approximately 600,000 meals each year in its often-crowded Soup Kitchen at the Preble Street Resource Center. As the pandemic spread and it became unsafe to gather indoors, we moved to a to-go model, where clients could pick up their meals at the Soup Kitchen to eat elsewhere. Meanwhile, as the pandemic brought on an economic crisis, the need for these meals and our emergency food pantry grew.
At the same time, our regular volunteer base – many of whom were over the age of 60, needed to stay home to stay safe. When we put out the call for new volunteers our hearts were overjoyed by the response. Hundreds of people who had never volunteered with us before came out to support their neighbors in need, and after pandemic guidelines loosened our loyal, long-time volunteers returned as well.
During the summer of 2020, we shifted away from the to-go model and launched the Street Outreach Collaborative . Meals are prepared at our new Food Security Hub and delivered to area shelters and other congregate living programs, as well as to people who are unsheltered. This shift has resulted in Preble Street providing over one million meals each year since the start of the pandemic.
Today, it’s staggering to look back and see how much, and how quickly we evolved in those early days of the pandemic. And while current events continue to breed uncertainty, one thing remains the same: Preble Street has never closed its doors and never will. Just like we did in 2020, we will continue to adapt to meet the needs of our community in an ever-evolving world.
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It starts with a meal, or a clean pair of socks
Three years ago this month, in response to the dangers and restrictions posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Preble Street reimagined the way we provide meals and casework to people experiencing homelessness, and the Street Outreach Collaborative (SOC) was born. Revisit the 2020 PBS Newshour story about these changes:“Mobile outreach: A lifeline during COVID-19” No longer
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“I friggin’ love it here!” – Elena’s Way Wellness Shelter client On a Tuesday in early October, the first guests entered the long-awaited Elena’s Way Wellness Shelter. They were greeted by a wide-open space filled with natural light, soothing colors and art on the walls, and their very own bed. Preble Street caseworkers gave them
Preble Street Food Security Hub will be the first food hub in Maine focused on food insecurity
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