25-unit supportive housing project now set to break ground
MELBOURNE: A new permanent housing project is breaking ground to help people experiencing homelessness get the shelter and care they need.
The Riverlands permanent supportive housing project will bring 25 apartments to Augusta, combining permanent housing with around-the-clock support for residents.
The project is also part of a larger statewide effort to address homelessness through Maine’s Home for Good program.
For Amanda Bartlett, the effort hits close to home.
“I know all the nooks and the crannies of this city,” Bartlett said.
As a child, Bartlett said she spent her days walking nearly every street in Augusta.
“I grew up in poverty here, in downtown Augusta, in a small apartment without transportation,” Bartlett said.
During those walks, she said she encountered others in even greater need. For years, Bartlett said she searched for an opportunity to build a career that would allow her to make a meaningful difference for people in her community.
Now, decades later, she is getting one step closer to achieving that goal with the groundbreaking of Riverlands.
“It’s a type of housing that’s just rare and desperately needed,” Bartlett said.
Bartlett is Director of Mission and Community Impact for Developers Collaborative, the nonprofit behind the 25-unit apartment building. The development is designed for people experiencing homelessness in the area who can pay 30% of their income toward rent.
“Essentially, the model is that if we serve folks first with housing, they have the stability and platform on which they can find success,” Bartlett said.
Residents will also have access to 24/7 support from staff with Volunteers of America Northern New England.
“Sometimes these people may have physical health issues or medical issues and we’re trying to connect them with healthcare, sometimes there’s a mental health disability or a substance use disability, and we’re trying to get them to treatment, sometimes they need a job or vocational skills, and we’re trying to connect them with those kinds of skills,” VOA Northern New England President Rich Hooks Wayman said.
Riverlands is one piece of Maine’s Home for Good program, a more than $30 million housing initiative established by Gov. Janet Mills and the Maine Legislature in 2023.
“In total, more than 200 new Home for Good apartments will be constructed in six different communities across Maine primarily through state funding over the next two to three years,” Mills said.
Augusta Mayor Mark O’Brien said the city is helping fund some of the remaining cost of the project. He and others involved said Riverlands comes as Augusta’s homeless population continues to grow.
“Projects like this will help us address those issues,” O’Brien said. “It’s only a little piece, but you put enough pieces together, and it will be impactful.”
For Bartlett, the project represents an opportunity to make a lasting difference in the community where she grew up.
“We have an opportunity for this to impact many lives and with a timeline that extends far beyond our own,” Bartlett said.
Developers Collaborative said construction is expected to be completed in October 2027. Six months prior to its completion, staff from VOA Northern New England will begin work in Augusta to create relationships with unhoused people in the area.