The Brunswick Town Council has scheduled a special meeting focused specifically on shelters for Monday, April 8, 2019 at 6:30pm. The public meeting will be held in the council chambers in the town hall located at 85 Union Street in Brunswick. As usual, these meetings are open to the public and available for viewing on Brunswick Cable TV3.
The meeting and its agenda has not been posted to the town’s website as of the publishing of this article, but it is expected that it will include a public hearing and possibly voting on both ordinances for zoning and licensing for shelters. If the council gets to vote in this meeting, after the public hearing and discussion by the council regarding the proposed ordinances, the moratorium on building shelters in Brunswick will come to en end.
UPDATE: The meeting agenda and packet documents were published to the town’s website a few hours after this post was published. You can view these documents in the list of links at the bottom of this post.
If you are looking for ways in which to show your support for Tedford’s comprehensive and important approach to creating pathways from homelessness to home in our community, here are a few actions step you can take:
- Attend this upcoming meeting on April 8th and any that follow, if necessary. Consider speaking about how valuable a resource Tedford is to the community. (You can find posted agendas from the town here or look for updates on our website here.)
- If you are a Brunswick resident, you can contact your town council representative directly (a list of members can be found here).
- Write a letter to the editor of The Times Record (find guidelines here)
Here are a few talking points to consider:
- Any performance standard must be reasonable and should not single out shelters. Tedford is an organization that has been in the community for over 30 years and is already held to a number of best practices and other accountabilities through MaineHousing and other funding resources.
- Tedford Housing’s vision will help reduce the high amount of individuals and families turned away every month, while also increasing efficiencies in delivering our essential programs and services. (Our FY2018 program and financial stats can be found here.)
- A comprehensive approach will result in the reduced risk of homelessness in the Brunswick area community, a faster return to housing stability for youth, adults and families, healthier households and increased self-sufficiency.
- It is important that Brunswick, as a regional center, includes districts that allow services to help our neighbors who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.
If you have any questions regarding Tedford Housing, this project or anything related to the zoning or licensing ordinance process, contact executive director Craig Phillips at 207-729-1161, #102 or craig@tedfordhousing.org.
FMI and some history, visit the following links:
- April 8, 2019 Meeting Agenda and Full Meeting Packet (44 pages)
- Homeless Shelter License Ordinance Draft (dated 3/18/19)
- Times Record article (3/19/2019): Town council to set rules for shelters, extends moratorium to May 1
- March 18, 2019 Meeting Agenda and Full Meeting Packet (141 pages)
- March 18, 2019 Meeting Packet with Tedford-related Materials Only (47 pages)
- Times Record article (2/20/2019): Brunswick weighs another homeless shelter rules delay, would push back Tedford project further
- Times Record Opinion article (2/14/2019): Jonathan Crimmons: Brunswick moves at a snail’s pace on homeless shelter
- Times Record article (2/8/19): Brunswick council pushes homeless shelter rules to a third workshop
- Times Record article (1/31/19): Debates over homeless shelter rules grind on to second council workshop, a year after Tedford first pitched expansion
- Times Record article (1/28/19): As town council prepares to tackle shelter expansion controversy, homeless families, individuals in Brunswick seeking to get lives back on track
- Letter to Editor: Clarifying Tedford Housing’s proposed emergency housing program
- Brunswick Town Council meeting agenda for January 24, 2019
- Brunswick Town Council packet for January 24, 2019 meeting
- Packet for January 8, 2019 Planning Board meeting (with Tedford-related materials only)
- Full packet for the January 8, 2019 Planning Board meeting
- Packet from December 11, 2018 Planning Board meeting
- Packet from November 27, 2018 Planning Board meeting
- Packet from November 13, 2018 Planning Board meeting
- FAQs on Tedford Housing Resource Center
- Tedford’s current annual report & other stats
- Shelter Task Force website
- Brunswick Town Council members
- Brunswick Planning Board members
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