News

NEWS & UPDATES

TAKE ACTION TODAY: Help keep Maine’s emergency shelters open and accessible

Maine’s 41 emergency shelters are at capacity almost every night and still struggling to meet the growing need with current state funding levels. According to a recent study by MaineHousing, it costs an average of $102 a night to operate a shelter bed in Maine (including administration, staff, and support services). Currently, emergency shelters only receive $7

Read More »

The power of advocacy

For 50 years, Preble Street has advocated for keeping people in Maine fed, sheltered, and housed. We are deeply committed to lifting up the voices of marginalized and underserved populations, bringing people together to focus on solutions, and ensuring that everyone in our state has food, clothing, and shelter. As a social work agency, we

Read More »

Increasing Maine’s emergency readiness

Something will happen again, whether it be a natural disaster or global pandemic. When it does happen, Preble Street will be there to work with partners, support our community, and ensure people are getting fed. Mark Swann, Preble Street Executive Director During the pandemic, Preble Street, like many other organizations, had to suspend its soup

Read More »

Preble Street in Bangor

Since its start as a small social work agency in Portland, Maine, Preble Street has been guided by its commitment to mission and empowering vulnerable Mainers. Earlier this year, this commitment led Preble Street to assume operations of Hope House, a 56-bed emergency low-barrier shelter in Bangor, after Penobscot Community Health Care (PCHC) announced the shelter

Read More »

We all need a safe place to call home

No one should have to live outside. Everyone regardless of who they are or where they come from needs a safe place to call home.  There are hundreds of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in Maine this winter, living outside in the cold… in parks, under bridges, beneath overpasses, and in many other places not meant

Read More »

Social work is at the heart of the MaineHealth-Preble Street Learning Collaborative

People who are homeless experience severe physical and mental health outcomes, facing many barriers to accessing healthcare and treatment. These barriers can include things like the high cost of care, a lack of insurance, distance or transportation, and even prejudice from the medical community. The MaineHealth-Preble Street Learning Collaborative (MH-PSLC) is a low-barrier, walk-in medical clinic in

Read More »
Photo from a human trafficking awareness event hosted earlier this month in Preble Street's Healing Center.

Supporting survivors of trafficking

“One of the biggest misconceptions, specifically here in Maine, is the mentality that it doesn’t happen here. It absolutely happens here, and that is why our program is in existence.” Hailey Virusso, Preble Street Director of Anti-Trafficking Services There’s no one face of human trafficking… a survivor can be someone who got pesticide poisoning, forced

Read More »

Feeding, housing, and sheltering more people than ever before

For 50 years, Preble Street has been here – expanding far beyond a handful of social work interns in Portland to more than 325 full and part-time staff and programs that touch every county in Maine. Preble Street is just one piece of the puzzle to solve hunger, homelessness, and poverty in Maine. To find

Read More »

Compassion in action: Preble Street at 50

“If you can’t get what you need, we’re here,” was the message Joe Kreisler wanted people experiencing poverty to hear when he founded High Street Resource Center (the organization that evolved into Preble Street) in 1975. For 50 years, Preble Street has been here – expanding far beyond a handful of social work interns in

Read More »

Portland honors the 50 community members who died in 2024 at Annual Vigil

On Friday, December 20, Portland held a vigil to remember the friends from the Greater Portland homeless community who died in 2024. On one of the longest nights of the year, a candlelit procession marched from the MaineHealth-Preble Street Learning Collaborative to Monument Square. To honor the 50 friends and community members who were lost

Read More »

Thank you, volunteers!

The dedication, compassion, and hard work of Preble Street volunteers make a profound impact on the lives of those we serve. This year, we’ve had over 1,300 individual volunteers contributing nearly 20,000 volunteer hours.   Our volunteers make time in their busy schedules and come out in all kinds of challenging Maine weather to make a positive

Read More »