WATERVILLE, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- Waterville soon will have a new homeless shelter that many community members feel is long overdue.
The Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter has been over capacity for years, and these days it turns away 15 to 30 people a night, even though an overflow shelter opened a few years ago to help with demand.
Monday, the shelter's staff held a ceremonial groundbreaking for its new space. The people behind the shelter feel say the new building not only will allow them to serve more people, it will help them serve guests better.
The new space offers more room for families, which make up about 40 percent of shelter guests. It also devotes about a third of its space to homeless prevention services, so that the people who stay there can get access to the resources or skills they need to get back on their feet, whether it's education, employment, transportation, financial planning, social skills or medical care.
The Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter's executive director, Betty Palmer, said, "It's a new way to shelter people, to rebuild lives, to get past the first 7 days of emergency and work individually wtih people on what they need. No two people will have the same plan."
Governor LePage was among those taking part in the ceremony. He has been a long-time supporter of the shelter and used to be on its board. The event took place at a time when the governor has been criticized for proposing steep cuts in Medicaid. He says the shelter is an example of what individuals and communities can accomplish if they work together. "The solution is not the rhetoric that you hear in Augusta. It's not the newspaper articles and what people say they don't do. The one thing I will say for the people on the third floor of Augusta. Put your money where your mouth is. I have," the governor said.
He added, "This is where the answer is. You give them a bed, a shelter, and you give them a chance. You show them the resources they need and give them the skills they need to put their lives back together and the majority of them do. It's not about political rhetoric."
The shelter is expected to be built by this September, and it should start serving people by winter.
NEWS CENTER