05/02/2026
In 2018, Bangor Area Homeless Shelter began working with an individual experiencing chronic homelessness. BAHS has served this individual in the Emergency Shelter on six separate occasions and he utilized the Hope House Health & Living Center on one occasion. In addition to our Emergency Shelter, this person has regularly utilized the BAHS Day Program and the Winter Warming Center. Even while housed this person would spend most of his days utilizing the BAHS Day Program from 8AM to 4PM. Sometimes this person has days where his mental health escalated his behaviors, and he tends to get too loud and doesn’t respond to verbal prompts. When this happens, BAHS staff usually ask him to take a walk and, on some occasions, have to have him leave for longer periods to give him a break. This person struggles with significant mental health issues therefore following rules is a challenge. Housing vouchers have been awarded to this person on three separate occasions and he has obtained safe, permanent housing twice. Unfortunately, both times he was housed his, behaviors caused by his mental health led to the loss of his housing. He is a nice, respectful, and likeable person but his mental health becomes an issue that leads to eviction. His case manager and I have tried to come up with different ideas that would allow his tenancy to be successful including adding noise barriers to his apartment. This too, proved unsuccessful.
We continue to brainstorm solutions in an attempt to help him preserve his housing. On a positive note, he works very well with BAHS staff and has formed great relationships with them. He has a great sense of humor and jokes around a lot, brings chocolate to us to show his appreciation, and writes poetry for the staff. Almost every staff member has received a nice poem from him. A very important part about him being here at the Shelter even when he does not have a bed, is easy accessibility to service providers in the community. The staff here are always trying to connect him to case managers and get him a case manager that he trusts. That’s generally the hard part because he doesn’t trust easily. This year, we were able to connect him with Kristen at Community Health and Counseling Services. She began working with him through the Shelter and was able to gain his trust. On 3/10 he was matched to a voucher through the Bangor Public Health & Community Services and Kristen was able to get that voucher for him. She was then able to connect him to a landlord reference, and he was in his new apartment a couple days later. He has been successfully housed since then. It doesn’t seem like a long time but for him, that is a big deal. Thank you for the collaboration, Awa Conteh and Kristen Robinson from CHCS. All of us working together got him off the streets and into his own home. We still see him often for our day program, food pantry, and other things that he may need but he spends more time at his new home than he did the last time he was house, but He knows that he can come here when he needs us.
