2020 Annual Update Newsletter Bringing Veterans Home Landlord Partner of the Year In the winter of 2018, Mike, a U.S. Army Each year we like to take the opportunity to Veteran, became homeless. For months he lived recognize one of our many outstanding in his car in freezing temperatures while landlord partners. continuing to work full-time. At one point he was treated for frostbite on his hands. The winner of this year’s Landlord Partner of the Year Award is BJB Realty! Over the past several years, BJB Realty has remained flexible when screening applicants and worked collaboratively with our member providers, all while offering quality housing to countless Veterans in need. Thank you BJB Realty for your partnership and commitment to ending Veteran homelessness in Maine! Finally, Mike heard about Preble Street Veterans Housing Services, a Maine Homeless Veteran Action Committee (MHVAC) provider. He was connected with a caseworker and immediately worked with her to make improvements in his life. She was able to “We have been working with Preble Street connect him to permanent housing and after Veterans Housing Services (VHS) for a few moving in he was reunited with his partner and years now and our experience has been a children. good one. The benefits with working with their staff is that any issues that arise are Mike has been safely housed for a year and a communicated and resolved quickly and half and is happy to be living with his family, professionally. working, and playing music. BJB Realty is happy to help in the fight to end Veteran homelessness in Maine. Our Veterans “Just having the stability to be able to rebuild gave us so much, the least we can do is try in every way, financially, emotionally. There’s and help them get on their feet. no way I can put into words the amount of gratitude that I have, but you know, life is BJB Realty, LLC is honored to be recognized as great. If I can help make one person aware a valued partner. Thank you and God Bless.” so they don’t have to sleep in their car or go through anything, then I want to do that. — Brad Marin, Property Manager There’s help out there.” Update: MHVAC’s Work to End Veteran Homelessness WHO WE ARE WHAT WE DO The Maine Homeless Veterans Action • Develop and oversee Maine’s service Committee (MHVAC) — the Veteran system that responds to homelessness and Committee of the Maine Continuum of Care housing insecurity among military Veterans. (MCoC) — exists to ensure Veteran homelessness is rare, brief and non- . Our system has No Wrong Door. We MHVAC was adopted as a standing committee of provide multiple access points that lead to the the MCoC in the Fall of 2016. same destination — connection with housing and supportive services. A few examples of how our No Wrong Door system works: Participating agencies include An elderly Veteran on a fixed income Maine Veterans of staying in an emergency shelter in Bangor is Preble Street Foreign Wars identified by one of our member provider’s outreach workers and enrolled in support services to help the Veteran find a safe, VA Maine Health Care Maine Elks Association affordable apartment, and connect them to System local community resources. A Veteran who is sleeping in her car in Cape United Veterans of Easterseals Maine Elizabeth, after her hours at work were Maine reduced, is referred to one of our member providers by her local town office. The member provider begins working to locate Veterans Inc. Garry Owen House an apartment in the community, while providing her support in connecting with Welcome to Housing, new employment, food, clothing, and MaineHousing Home Goods Bank Inc. other critical resources. A Veteran with multiple disabilities on a fixed income is sleeping in an RV without Kennebec Valley Maine Bureau of access to electricity or running water in Community Action Veterans’ Services Litchfield. The Veteran calls one of our Program member provider’s referral lines and is immediately connected to their support Volunteers of America: Seeds of Hope services to help them obtain a safe, Northern New England Neighborhood Center affordable apartment. • Maintain a statewide By-Name List of all Betsy Ann Ross House identified Veterans experiencing homelessness. Furniture Friends of Hope We use this data to remain accountable and make regular improvements to our service system. American Legion Bread of Life Ministries Department of Maine • Regularly coordinate resources and services through weekly conference calls among providers. And many others! • In 2019, we connected 254 unhoused Veteran families with safe, permanent housing. MHVAC’s Work to End Veteran Homelessness, cont. PANDEMIC IMPACTS OUR PANDEMIC CRISIS RESPONSE • Drastic decrease in available housing: Thanks to the advocacy of VA Leadership and eviction moratoriums and restrictions on court the Maine Congressional delegation, MHVAC activity have led to fewer evictions and a received additional funding to adequately severe shortage of available housing. respond to this crisis. Through our committee’s close collaboration, we have been able to work • Increase in rent prices: scarce supply of as a team to best manage these funds and available housing coupled with an increase in respond effectively, using this funding to: demand has spiked rent prices across Maine. • Develop an emergency response system to • The pandemic’s impacts are additional ensure the safety of the Veterans we barriers to housing access for the serve. We are partnering with dozens of Veterans we serve. hotels and motels across the state to shelter Veterans at highest risk of • The pandemic is highlighting the fact that our contracting COVID-19, while we work with state lacks sufficient supply of affordable them to seek permanent housing. housing. Housing supply does not adequately meet demand, which perpetuates Over the last six months, we partnered homelessness among Veterans in our with over 50 hotels and motels across communities. southern, central, and northern Maine to shelter 104 high risk Veteran families. “Wages haven’t kept up with housing costs. Demands for single-family homes have driven If you are a landlord and you have available home prices up, keeping many potential buyers units, you can help by listing them on in rentals. That increases demand for rentals, Padmission, our free, user friendly listing resulting in higher rent prices. As a result, many service! More details at LandlordsHelp.org cannot find housing they can afford or they’re stuck choosing between necessities to afford • Cooperation and teamwork are the housing.” reasons we are able to serve so many Veteran households. “Maine is experiencing a fundamental mismatch All our member between its housing stock and its housing needs, providers have creating enormous problems for our citizens and pulled together to our state’s economic well-being. For tens of respond to the thousands of Mainers, the price, quality, size and pandemic, location of the homes available to them are coordinate services simply out of sync with their needs and and resources, and resources.” find solutions in these trying times. — Greg Payne, Director, Maine Affordable Housing Coalition Working Toward an End to Veteran Homelessness: A National Lens “The Maine Homeless “Across the country, urban, suburban, and rural Veteran Action Committee communities alike have proven that by working has worked tirelessly to together we can drive down the number of develop new and Veterans experiencing homelessness to as close innovative partnerships to zero as possible, while also building systems throughout the State to that can effectively address Veterans’ housing address Veteran crises in the future. The USICH Criteria and homelessness. From Benchmarks for Ending Veteran Homelessness collaborations with the serves as a road map and offers an evaluative VFW and American Legion tool to assist local communities to move to inviting elected officials to join in the Mayor’s forward. Since 2011, national point-in-time data Challenge, MHVAC has demonstrated documents a 51% reduction in the number of unwavering support for ensuring our Veterans Veterans experiencing homelessness through are treated with the utmost respect and dignity. 2019. This progress has been driven by urgent I applaud the hard work of the committee as a action at all levels of government and across all leader in New England, overcoming both urban sectors. The State of Maine is efficiently and rural homelessness challenges. As the deploying federal and local resources to assist Committee approaches its goal of systematically Veterans with housing through strong ending Veteran homelessness, I encourage partnerships across multiple agencies in both community leaders, landlords, and residents of the public and private sector, including the the great State of Maine to come together to enlistment of Mayors for the Mayor’s Challenge support these efforts. Now more than ever, we to End Veteran homelessness. As Maine need the additional support of landlords to continues to demonstrate its dedication and ensure we reach our goal of ending Veteran commitment to ending Veteran homelessness, homelessness. Together, we will end Veteran USICH looks forward to including Maine in the homelessness in the State, and use Maine as a current roster of 79 communities and three model for the rest of the country.” states that have successfully met the Federal Criteria and Benchmarks.” — David Tille, Regional Administrator, New England Regional Office, United States — Bob Pulster, Regional Coordinator, National Department of Housing and Urban Development Initiatives Team, United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Eliminating Veteran homelessness has been a top priority for the Veterans Administration since 2009. Great progress has been made here in Maine and across the nation, yet more remains to be done. We are tremendously grateful for our partnerships with local governments and community agencies. Their support and collaboration have been essential to the progress we’ve made so far, and will continue to be vital to reaching our goal moving forward.