Housing As a Human Right

Freedom Network USA interviewed Senior Director of Teen and Anti-Trafficking Services Daniella Cameron about how housing programs – and survivor-first practices – give individuals the opportunity of choice after their trauma. Read more…

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New housing complex offers home to homeless

Some members of Portland’s homeless population now have a place to call home. Preble Street officially opened the third complex of its Housing First initiative: Huston Commons, an apartment complex designed to help the chronically homeless by providing a permanent place for them to live. Huston Commons houses 30 people who have been living on … Read more

Portland Housing Committee ready to plot priorities

PORTLAND — After four months of listening, the City Council Housing Committee is headed toward some starting points for policies. The committee will first cull and review data gathered at its May 25 meeting at the University of Southern Maine. The committee chairwoman, Councilor Jill Duson, said the results from queries about 135 possible areas of … Read more

Preble Street awarded $1.7M to aid veterans with housing needs in Maine

MACHIAS, Maine – Federal grants totaling nearly $4 million have been awarded to three organizations to help combat homelessness among veterans in Maine. A $290,000 grant to the Washington Hancock Community Agency marks the third year the agency has received funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs, said Jennifer Trowbridge, housing and veterans services director … Read more

More homeless shelter funds get first OK from Maine lawmakers

… Mark Swann, executive director of Preble Street in Portland, said that on any given night the state’s 42 shelters are housing roughly 1,000 Mainers. He told lawmakers during the public hearing that shelter operators were desperate for state funding assistance …  Read more.

Federal funding for homeless shifts to housing programs

PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — More than one million dollars in federal money is coming to Maine to help the homeless, specifically to place more chronically homeless people in permanent housing. The money is going to several agencies around the state that support housing first and rapid re-housing programs, which provide permanent housing for the … Read more

77 chronically homeless placed in permanent housing

PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — Homelessness is an issue that continues to plague the streets of Portland, but a national campaign is helping put an end to it. In November, Portland joined 56 other communities from across the country, housing an average of 2.5% of the chronically homeless each month. But in Portland, just over … Read more

First Lady Issues Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness

First lady Michelle Obama announced a new commitment to end veteran homelessness. Part of the Joining Forces Initiative, the commitment includes 77 mayors, four governors, and four county officials to end veteran homelessness by 2015. The first lady was introduced by Chris Fuentes, a war veteran who lived in her car briefly after returning from Iraq. Housing … Read more

Top U.S. housing official visits Maine

U.S. housing official Barbara Poppe pays a visit today to the Joe Kriesler Teen Shelter at Preble Street in Portland. One of the federal government’s top housing officials has been visiting a couple of homeless shelters in Maine’s biggest city. Barbara Poppe, the executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, toured the Florence … Read more