The Bangor Area Homeless Shelter is open 365 days a year, providing Overnight Shelter, Day Services, a daily Soup Kitchen, Food Pantry and an overnight Winter Warming Center

Programs We Fund

Success Stories.

In 2020 a couple came to BAHS seeking emergency shelter services. The couple was accepted into the Shelter where their basic needs of food, water, clothing, safety, a place to sleep were immediately met. Once their basic needs were met, we began the process of working with the couple to determine the challenges and barriers that led to their experience with homelessness. We learned that the couple had a 3-year-old child with special needs who was staying with her grandmother temporarily and the father had a job, but the couple had a poor rental history that included multiple evictions, property damage, monies owed to a landlord, and a lack of support services and budgeting skills. Shortly into the couples stay, we also learned that the father had mental health issues including poor anger management which ultimately led to him to be exited from the program. After leaving the Shelter, he couch surfed with their child and would regularly have visits with the woman at a nearby park. The woman made the choice to stay without her partner and our program continued connecting her to support services that included case management for her and her partner, case management for their child, couples counseling, anger management counseling for the father, and budgeting classes. In March 2020, strict COVID-19 protocols were put in place which prevented the family from being able to have regular visits and also caused the grandmother to no longer provide childcare while the father worked. To prevent COVID-19 from hindering the progress that was being made and to help the couple overcome the issue of childcare, BAHS utilized COVID-19 funding to place the family in a hotel. Their progress towards self-sufficiency continued but finding a landlord that was willing to give them a chance was a significant challenge. After almost a year, the BAHS Housing Navigator was able to find a landlord who was willing to work with the Shelter and the couple. The Shelter was able to make an agreement to pay up to $1,000.00 above the normal security deposit should the landlord experience any financial losses due to the tenancy within the first year. We are happy to report that this couple is still thriving in their apartment 13 months after moving in and the $1,000.00 was never used. This family is just one of many who have come through our program where their basic needs were met and a holistic approach was taken to connect them with the tools and resources, they needed to break down barriers, problem solve, and continue to be self-sufficient ultimately ending the cycle of homelessness in their lives.