Tedford Housing

Empowering people to move from homelessness to home.

COVID-19 Organization Response Plan Update

By Leave a Comment

Written by Rota L. Knott, Executive Director for Tedford Housing. Effective August 6, 2021.

Tedford Housing is retaining its COVID-19 protocols to ensure the continued health, safety, and
welfare of our guests, tenants, outreach clients, and staff during the pandemic. These protocols remain
applicable at all Tedford Housing facilities.

Effective immediately Tedford Housing has updated its COVID-19 safety protocols:

• Even if fully vaccinated, as per CDC guidelines, all staff and guests should also continue to wear
masks in both the Adult and Family homeless shelters.
• Guests at the Adult Shelter will wear a face covering in all indoor and outdoor common areas,
except when eating or in the designated outdoor smoking area.
• Guests at the Family Shelter will wear a face covering in all indoor and outdoor common areas,
except when in the designated outdoor smoking area.
• Guests are not required to wear face coverings in their individual units.
• Staff will wear a face covering when at work in all common spaces at all Tedford Housing
facilities. Face coverings are not required when working alone in a private office or similar space.
• Staff will follow state protocols regarding the wearing of face coverings in all public spaces, both
indoor and outdoor, in Maine when conducting official Tedford Housing business. This includes
when participating in off-site client outreach or other professional meetings.
• Outreach clients will wear a face covering at all times during both on-site and off-site
appointments. Staff can provide face coverings for clients as necessary. On-site appointments
with outreach clients with be limited to a maximum of four members of a single household.
• All Tedford Housing offices, shelters, and supportive housing buildings will remain closed to the
general public. Volunteers will be limited to a maximum of four per indoor on-site volunteer
activity. Outdoor volunteer activities will follow CDC capacity recommendations.
• Only staff, guests, and approved service providers will be permitted to enter the shelters without
permission of the director of operations or executive director. Visitors at all Tedford Housing
facilities will be required to wear a mask to gain entry.
• Shelter guests with a fever or other symptoms COVID-19 symptoms as outlined by the CDC will
be referred for medical care, and must show a negative COVID-19 test with clearance by a
medical professional in order to reenter the shelter.
• Staff members who have a fever or other symptoms or who have a symptomatic member of their
household will be referred for medical care. Staff must show a negative COVID-19 test with
clearance by a medical professional in order to return to work.
• Non-shelter staff will work remotely as necessary and approved by their immediate supervisor.
Access by staff to multiple facilities will be limited.

During the time that Tedford Housing is exercising COVID-19 protocols in our shelters, the
following steps will be taken when intakes are being conducted and specifically relate to the prevention of
transmission of COVID-19. These steps are in addition to the standard intake procedures in place at the
adult and family shelters.

Beginning Aug. 1, 2021, the adult shelter capacity will not exceed 12 guests. The family shelter
will continue to serve six families in individual apartments.

  1. All persons seeking shelter access will be asked to present a negative COVID-19 test within
    72 hours of intake.
  2. All persons seeking access will be asked screening questions at intake. These include:
    • Have they had a fever?
    • Have they had a new and worsening cough?
    • Have they experienced a recent loss of taste or smell?
    • In the last two weeks have they been exposed to or have been in close proximity to
    anybody that has tested positive for COVID-19?
    For families seeking access these questions will apply to all family members seeking access.
    Individuals or family members responding yes to any of the above questions will be referred for medical
    care, and must show a negative COVID-19 test with clearance by a medical professional in order to
    reenter the shelter.
  3. All persons seeking access will have their temperature taken before access is granted.
    Individuals or family members with a temperature above normal (98.6) will be referred for
    medical care, and must show a negative COVID-19 test with clearance by a medical
    professional in order to reenter the shelter.

Tedford Housing will continue to operate our Adult Shelter 24 hours a day. The Adult Shelter
will not close and guests will not be asked to leave during the daytime as is our typical protocol. At our Adult Shelter, Family Shelter and supportive housing complexes, our guests and residents are asked to continue practicing social distancing with a 6-foot minimum separation as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control. Case management for our guests and outreach clients will be handled remotely by staff as needed.

Tedford Housing may opt to alter our shelter operations at any time. For additional
information, contact Rota L. Knott, Executive Director.

Click here for the PDF version.

COVID-19 Organization Response Plan Update

By Leave a Comment

Tedford Housing

Written by Rota L. Knott, Executive Director for Tedford Housing. Effective April 27th, 2021.

Tedford Housing is enhancing its COVID-19 protocols to ensure the continued health, safety, and welfare of our guests, tenants, outreach clients, and staff during the pandemic. These new protocols are applicable at all Tedford Housing facilities.

Effective immediately Tedford Housing has implemented the following COVID-19 safety protocols:

  • Staff will wear a face covering when at work in all common spaces at all Tedford Housing facilities. Face coverings are not required when working alone in a private office or similar space.
  • Staff will follow state protocols that require the wearing of face coverings in all public spaces, both indoor and outdoor, in Maine when conducting official Tedford Housing business. This includes when participating in off-site client outreach or other professional meetings.
  • Guests at the Adult Shelter will wear a face covering in all indoor and outdoor common areas, except when eating or in the designated outdoor smoking area.
  • Guests at the Family Shelter will wear a face covering in all indoor and outdoor common areas, except when in the designated outdoor smoking area. Guests are not required to wear face coverings in their individual units.
  • Outreach clients will wear a face covering at all times during both on-site and off-site appointments. On-site appointments with outreach clients with be limited to a maximum of four members of a single household.
  • All Tedford Housing offices, shelters, and supportive housing buildings will remain closed to the general public. Volunteers will be limited to a maximum of four per on-site volunteer activity. Outdoor volunteer activities will follow CDC capacity recommendations
  • Only staff and guests will be permitted to enter the shelters without permission of the director of operations or executive director.
  • Shelter guests with a fever or other symptoms will be referred for medical care, and must show a negative COVID-19 test with clearance by a medical professional in order to reenter the shelter.
  • Staff members who have a fever or other symptoms or who have a symptomatic member of their household will be referred for medical care. Staff must show a negative COVID-19 test with clearance by a medical professional in order to return to work.
  • Non-shelter staff will work remotely as necessary and approved by their immediate supervisor. Access by staff to multiple facilities will be limited.

During the time that Tedford Housing is exercising COVID-19 protocols in our shelters, the following steps will be taken when intakes are being conducted and specifically relate to the prevention of transmission of COVID-19. These steps are in addition to the standard intake procedures in place at the adult and family shelters.

Until further notice, the adult shelter capacity will not exceed 10 guests. The family shelter will continue to serve six families in individual apartments.

  1. All persons seeking shelter access will be required to present a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of intake.
  2. All persons seeking access will be asked screening questions at intake. These include: Have they had a new and worsening cough?
    • Have they had a fever?
    • Have they experienced a recent loss of taste or smell?
    • In the last two weeks have they been exposed to or have been in close proximity to anybody that has tested positive for COVID-19?
      For families seeking access, these questions will apply to all family members seeking access. Individuals or family members responding yes to any of the above questions will be referred for medical care, and must show a negative COVID-19 test with clearance by a medical professional in order to reenter the shelter.
  3. All persons seeking access will have their temperature taken before access is granted. Individuals or family members with a temperature above normal (98.6) will be referred for medical care, and must show a negative COVID-19 test with clearance by a medical professional in order to reenter the shelter.

Tedford Housing will continue to operate our Adult Shelter 24 hours a day to ensure our guests have a safe place be while the statewide State of Emergency remains in place. The Adult Shelter will not close and guests will not be asked to leave during the daytime as is our typical protocol.

At our Adult Shelter, Family Shelter and supportive housing complexes, our guests and residents are asked to continue practicing extreme social distancing with a 6-foot minimum separation as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control. Case management for our guests and outreach clients will be handled remotely by staff as needed.

Tedford Housing may opt to alter our shelter operations at any time. For additional information, contact Rota L. Knott, Executive Director.

What’s Next for the Tedford Housing Resource Center

By Leave a Comment

The strength of the people of this region who understand and empathize with the lived experience of homelessness is very powerful. The staff and board of Tedford Housing are very grateful for the support it has received from the community as the Town of Brunswick wound its way through a zoning ordinance process for shelters and Tedford Housing advocated for reasonable outcomes. After a little over one year, the moratorium on building shelters in Brunswick has ended. A zoning ordinance is in the books, as is a licensing process for shelters, which is somewhat unique for Maine municipalities.

So what’s next? For now, Tedford Housing is assessing where we are and where we want to go in the short term in regards to building a new facility. We do know that increasing numbers of adults and families experiencing homelessness exceeds our capacity, and we are committed to leading a community response that addresses this gap. We will continue to work with our partners on identifying possible sites for the full vision of a resource center. Throughout this process, in addition to discussing the technical aspects of zoning, we hope we have at least increased the knowledge within the whole community of the nature and extent of homelessness in Brunswick and the surrounding area.

Tedford Housing officials catching their breath before restarting planning for new Brunswick facilities (Times Record, April 15, 2019)

Brunswick Town Council approves zoning rules for homeless shelters (The Forecaster,  April 10, 2019)

Brunswick Town Council to Hold Special Meeting on Shelters Monday, April 8th

By Leave a Comment

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:

An Update on the Moratorium on Shelters in Brunswick and What’s Coming Next

By Leave a Comment

On Monday, March 4th, the Brunswick Town Council held a public hearing on extending the current moratorium on building shelters. After several community members voiced their concerns with the time it has taken for the town to make a decision on a zoning ordinance for shelters, most in full support of Tedford Housing, a vote was not taken. The vote on extending the moratorium is now expected to occur on March 18th when all council members will be present. Following are the meeting documents posted on the town’s website today:

It is our understanding that the next step in this process, once a vote to extend the moratorium is complete, is for the town council to review a comprehensive list of possible performance standards that would go into effect for shelters along with the zoning ordinance. The council will review each standard and vote to keep or reject each standard, line by line. Both the zoning ordinance and the performance standards will need to be voted on, with public hearings, in order to be finalized.

There was an excellent turnout of Tedford Housing supporters at this last meeting. We hope to see more of this as we keep moving forward in this long process. 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 steps you can take:

  • Attend upcoming meetings and workshops and consider speaking about how valuable a resource Tedford is to the community. The Brunswick Town Council meets on the first and third Monday at 6:30pm. (You can find posted agendas from the town here or look for updates on our website here. We are guessing there may be 3 – 5 more meetings before a zoning ordinance and any performance standard is finalized.)
  • 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:

  • 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.
  • 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 Maine Housing and other funding resources.

If you have any questions regarding Tedford Housing, this project or anything related to the zoning ordinance process, contact executive director Craig Phillips at 207-729-1161, #102 or craig@tedfordhousing.org.

PO Box 958, Brunswick ME 04011