BRUNSWICK

Samantha came to the Brunswick area for work. What she found was unemployment and, eventually, homelessness.

One job ended when the business closed within six months of her being hired. Two more jobs followed, the second ending when her daughter was hospitalized and Samantha ran out of family medical leave. Samantha also took in two homeless people and in doing so, broke the terms of her lease, becoming homeless herself, along with her daughter and two teenage sons.

With no family or friends to turn to for help, they found themselves living in a tent at a local campground and eventually at Tedford Housing’s emergency shelter for families.

Although thankful for having shelter, Samantha noted that it was stressful having four people living in the small space with no privacy.

“I don’t think homelessness is a choice,” said Samantha, whose last name is being withheld upon request, due to the stigma attached to being homeless. “It can happen to anyone.”

A resource center proposed and opposed

Samantha was one of many people helped by Tedford Housing, which operates a six-apartment family emergency shelter on Federal Street and a 16-bed single adult emergency shelter on Cumberland Street. It serves many more in the Midcoast through its outreach and case management services.

Now, the nonprofit wants to replaced its outdated shelters that are stretched beyond capacity.

More than 400 individual adults approached Tedford in 2015, but only a quarter of them could be helped, according to a report by a consultant hired by Tedford. Of the nearly 300 families that called Tedford that year, only 22 could be sheltered.

“Homelessness continues to increase in Maine and the Midcoast, even though the unemployment rate is getting lower and wages are beginning to increase,” the report states. “The fate of the poorest seems to be diverging from other income groups.”

Tedford wants to consolidate its operations at a proposed $4 million, 16,000-square-foot resource center on the corner of Baribeau Drive and Pleasant Hill Road. The facility would provide 30 beds for single adults and 12 units with four beds each for families.

“We’d end up with more rooms that are accessible to people with handicap conditions or service animals,” said Tedford Executive Director Craig Phillips.

Those plans were halted last week when the Brunswick Town Council approved an emergency moratorium after learning the town’s zoning doesn’t permit the dormitory-style living for homeless adults planned at the resource center.

Neighbors in the Baribeau-Pleasant Hill area are also opposing the planned resource center, and have formed a coalition. Asked if he wants the project at the current proposed site, coalition spokesman Jim Bridge said, “I think the answer is no, it’s not the right place.”

Asked if there are concerns about the impacts such a center would have on neighbors, he said, “of course, there are.”

“There’s always a concern, the unknown of, ‘OK, how is this going to impact us?’,” Bridge said. “Because we don’t really know.”

The coalition “sees that there is a need and recognizes that we have a social responsibility to help individuals less fortunate than us,” Bridge said, but questions the wisdom of placing the resource center “two miles from the networks that provide jobs.”

Location issues

As someone who has experienced the stress of homelessness, Samantha has also raised concerns about the proposed location. She noted it is a couple of miles from resources such as The Gathering Place, a daytime drop-in center, and wants it in a more central location where people can access the community. That’s important, she said, because those staying at Tedford’s emergency shelters must leave the premises during the day, and they have to have somewhere to go.

A centralized location would give them better access to resources to work on employment and housing options and where the Midcoast Hunger Prevention Program’s food truck can stop.

“Make it so they don’t have to be mobile,” Samantha said. “The whole project is a fantastic idea, but make it more accessible.”

The proposed site is outside of the downtown — away from jobs and other services more easily accessible by foot, though it is along the Brunswick Explorer bus route, Tedford is expecting to provide its own shuttle service.

However, the downtown area has become increasingly expensive. For example, rent for a less than 1,000- square-foot apartment at the newly constructed Brunswick Station Apartments — only a couple of blocks from Tedford Housing’s Middle Street shelter — are about $1,500.

Out of the shelter, still in poverty

As for Samantha and her family: They lived at Tedford’s shelter for seven months before she was able to get a voucher to help pay for an apartment. It took another two months to find an affordable one in Brunswick.

She signed a lease March 1, but still copes with the stress of living on the limited income afforded by her job as a taxi driver.

Their first night in the new place was spent on the floor, though they now have a couple of beds, an air mattress and a kitchen table. Samantha has a job driving a taxi, and is working to make their new place a home.

But it isn’t easy.

“I shouldn’t have to work this hard and live in poverty,” she said.