County Lines - Updates from Cumberland County

In This Edition

Homelessness Facilities Investment
ARPA Competitive Applications
Public Health
Job Opportunities
Regional Public Safety Job Board, Service Collaborations
2022 CDBG Applications

Homeless Facilities Investment

At our December meeting on Monday night, the Cumberland County Commissioners awarded more than $4.5 million from the County's American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds toward the construction of shelters in Portland and Brunswick, and a study for emergency housing in the Lakes Region.

The Commissioners have ranked the growing challenge of homelessness and housing security across the region as a high priority for ARPA funding since the federal law was passed last spring. On Monday night, they voted unanimously to direct $3 million from the County’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocation to the city of Portland, for construction of the city’s new shelter.

Portland has committed to a new Homeless Services Center with on-site food, medical, counseling and transit services on the Westbrook/Portland line, which will continue to serve people experiencing homelessness. The project is an expansion of the city’s existing program, with a new approach to provide complete wraparound on-site food, medical, counseling and transit services.

The Commissioners also voted unanimously to dedicate over $1.6 million in ARPA funds for two projects at Tedford Housing, a Brunswick-based organization that runs emergency shelter space and case management in the Brunswick region. The first project will see $1.5 million go toward construction of Tedford’s new shelter space in Brunswick, which will serve people from Brunswick and its surrounding towns in need of shelter and critical support.

Tedford Housing currently operates a sixteen-bed adult shelter and a six-unit family shelter, both located in Brunswick. The organization is planning to construct a new sixty four-bed emergency housing building that will serve individual adults and families experiencing homelessness. The new building will include twenty four adult shelter beds and ten family apartment-style units. The building also includes space for case management and administrative offices, allowing Tedford to more quickly provide wraparound services for permanent housing and other supports.

Finally, the Commissioners dedicated over $106,000 toward a research project with Tedford Housing. For several years now, the Executive Team at the County has been exploring the challenge of housing insecurity in the Lakes Region, and looking for the best models to support residents who have lost their home or are on the edge of becoming homeless without having to leave the community.

The project will conduct a significant study of people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity in the Lakes Region of Cumberland County, including the towns of Baldwin, Casco, Bridgton, Harrison, Naples, Raymond, and Sebago.

Currently, there are limited programs in the Lakes Region that aid and support people experiencing homelessness with emergency or permanent housing, or assist those at risk of housing insecurity to successfully maintain permanent housing. Based on identified needs, the study will evaluate potential locations for a service center or centers - including exploring zoning and other land use restrictions at potential sites for homeless services - and other barriers to development of these facilities, including community impact, environmental factors, accessibility, and existence of complementary services.

Watch Commissioner Cloutier talk with WGME 13 about the research project here!

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ARPA Competitive Applications

Cumberland County has received more than 100 applications from towns and agencies requesting over $88 million for the $11 million available in the first round of competitive funding made possible through the American Rescue Plan Act.

The County Commissioners nominated members of the public to a review panel on Monday night, and staff is busily working to develop full applications so we can get to the process of reviewing, scoring and selecting awardees this winter.

Public Health

Cumberland County is excited to announce that we have added Liz Blackwell-Moore to our executive team, in a new position as the County Public Health Manager.

Liz will work within County government and alongside its myriad regional partners with an interest in public health to coordinate regional programming and planning, secure new public health resources, respond to on-the-ground health crises, and improve health outcomes.

Over the next several months, Liz will work with a qualified contractor to build the County's first County Health Improvement Plan (CHIP). The goal of this process will be to:
create presentations on existing data and current public health efforts for the identified priority health concerns; research possible strategies to meet the gaps in current public health efforts; provide administrative, technical, and facilitation support to engage organizations, community groups, and people most impacted by the gaps in public health efforts to create a plan; and support the writing of a 4-year CHIP.

Job Opportunities

Cumberland County is currently hiring for several positions, including Corrections Officers at the County Jail. With a highly competitive base salary of $50,000 after six months, generous incentives and benefits, this is a great opportunity for someone interested in starting a career in law enforcement and corrections.

For more information about this career opportunity, direct any interested applicants to the career section of our County website.

Public Safety Regional Job Board

Cumberland County has created a new regional job board on our website, specifically for municipalities to post open public safety jobs.

We created the page based on feedback from County police and fire chiefs that a central resource for public safety jobs could attract more interest from public safety professionals looking to move to the region, or who live here already and may be interested in pursuing a new career in public safety. The page has only been live for a few weeks, and already, several high quality jobs are listed there from participating towns.

If you are looking to fill a public safety position, send an email to Katherine Cahoon in the Executive Office and she can work with you to post the position on our site. If you are interested in a public safety job in Cumberland County, check out the job board today!

Regional Public Safety Services

Speaking of the difficulty in filling public safety jobs, we've heard from town managers and chiefs recently that the challenges of managing some municipal public safety services are moving them toward considering a regional model.

Most of our town managers participated in a recent meeting to discuss what is driving the problem, and began to talk about the possibility of voluntary, regional public safety service models. Managers completed a brief survey indicating where their challenges are greatest, and the principal reasons driving these challenges. The feedback was illuminating, and will guide more targeted and specific discussions with town partners in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

Community Development Block Grants

The window for the 2022 Community Development Block Grant pre-applications closed earlier this week, and we received a lot of fantastic project concepts from our participating towns. CDBG staff is looking forward to reviewing these applications with the MOC Review Panel this winter, and making significant investments in our communities in 2022!

We're continuing to work with interested communities on useful new service offerings, and identifying areas of need that the County may be able to fill in an efficient and effective way. We'll keep you updated as these developments take shape.