BANGOR, Maine — Penobscot Community Health Care is looking for a new partner to take over operations of the Hope House Health Center.
The Hope House is an overnight shelter on Corporate Drive with capacity to house more than 50 people per night.
According to its website, the emergency homeless shelter is a 64-bed facility and is the second largest shelter in Maine, offering onsite health care services and three meals per day, and it serves as an overflow shelter location for people experiencing homelessness.
PCHC President and CEO Lori Dwyer said operating costs have skyrocketed, and funding is not keeping up with demand.
The organization is expected to lose roughly $600,000 related in 2023 to operating the shelter, Dwyer said.
Dwyer also said they do plan to continue operating the Hope House clinic and transitional housing available on the same campus as the shelter, but continuing to run the shelter itself is not currently feasible.
"We don't want to get to a point where we have to make that hard choice between unsafe conditions and keeping it open, so the goal here is to keep it open," she said. "We want to find the funding and find the partner, but PCHC has made the decision that it's not something we can sustain long term."
Dwyer said the process of finding a partner to take over operations of the shelter is expected to take about a year. The shelter will remain open while they look for a new operator.