Dear Statewide Homeless Council & Allies!
Thank you for meeting today on Tuesday, May 13, 2025.
It was great to be with everyone and to hear updates. I’m especially grateful to the staff at MaineHousing, Scott Tibbetts and Tara Hembree for walking us through an excellent overview of PIT, HIC, and HMIS data for our state’s homeless response system. The ability to look back over the past few decades was very informative. I look forward to sharing key findings from this data with the Governor and Agency Commissioners this fall.
As a follow-up to today’s meeting, I wanted to provide you with our action steps:
- Published and immediate statement regarding the closure of York County shelter.
- Sharing the Council’s written testimony in support of LD 1910, one of our priority legislative bills before the state legislature. Please see attached.
- The Policy Committee will continue to share hearing dates and testimony opportunities.
- Edit our draft two-page fact sheet that offers an overview of Maine’s homeless response system and positive outcomes for our program participants. Focus on 2-3 key data points.
- The full Council will review and suggest edits before the end of May.
- Allies and friends of the Council will be given a copy as part of the June Agenda packet and can offer suggested changes and feedback.
- Share hub data dashboard and HIS outcome information with council.
- Be prepared for an email request to outreach to members of the legislative appropriations committee regarding our priority bills.
- Meet with MaineHousing staff, including Lauren Bustard, on how to configure and best utilize our homeless planning website. (https://www.mainehomelessplanning.org/)
This will help to position this webpage (and the SHC and the Maine CoC) as a hub of important information, resources, and research.
| Homepage – Maine Homeless Planning Welcome. The Maine Homeless Planning Website brings together information about the groups, programs, and initiatives working to solve homelessness across the state of Maine. www.mainehomelessplanning.org |
Our future meeting will focus on the infrastructure of Maine’s homeless response system and how we fund services (financial overview). The SHC wishes to clarify for the state the level of units/services currently funded with public financing and the outcomes achieved in ending homelessness across our state. Our next couple of months will be focused on creating this roadmap of infrastructure and outcome data.
Please reach out with any questions, suggestions, or concerns.
Thank you for the effort and creativity you bring to ending homelessness for so many Mainers.
Peace- Rich Hooks Wayman
Richard A. Hooks Wayman
President & CEO
VOA Northern New England