BUILDING HOPE: ENDING HOMELESSNESS IN MAINE
BUILDING HOPE tells audiences around Maine that there is hope to ending the suffering of homelessness.
The film begins with the story of Aneyva, a 30-year old woman with two children, a former early childhood educator with two college degrees. The pandemic caused her to lose her job, her home, and her children and she now lives in Bangor’s Tent City, homeless.
Amelia, an employed, hard working contractor, suffered the trauma of domestic violence leading to her loss of housing. After two years of homelessness with her high school- aged daughter, she found the help of Homeworthy, formerly the Knox County Homeless Coalition, and now has a home, continues in her job, and has re-started her apothecary business.
James, whose grandmother found him a paper route, was making $100/week. His friends dealing cocaine were making $4-500/day. So he went to work delivering drugs which led him to being “popped” by the cops. He spent nearly 25 years in prison. Homeless when released he found help with a Housing Navigator from the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter. Now, with the help of a government Section 8 voucher, he has an apartment owned by Community Housing of Maine (CHOM) in Bangor and a job at Chipotle.
BUILDING HOPE explores these stories and more of those caught in the daily crisis of homelessness. With the help of leading state advocates, many have risen above their circumstances to find housing and jobs and are becoming productive members of society. Others, due to mental illness and substance use disorder, have yet to succeed.
Today, it is even more difficult due to the dearth of affordable housing and the influx of asylum seekers taking up so many of the beds at our cities’ shelters. The film explores the whys and hows our society can heal the suffering. Maine’s Speaker of the House Rachel Talbot Ross talks about her own vulnerabilities growing up, and with the $100 million dollars that she has led the state legislature to invest in affordable housing, there is hope. Maine Independent US Senator Angus King addresses the inadequacies of our minimum wage and the government tax incentive bills he co-sponsors to give confidence to developers to create affordable housing and emergency shelters. Developer Kevin Bunker, the force behind building Portland’s new Homeless Services Center and the new Asylum Seekers Center, talks about the root causes of inequality in our system.
Preble Street’s Mark Swann laments over Portland’s sweeps of encampments, yet his hope “springs eternal.” Community Housing of Maine’s director, Cullen Ryan, makes crystal clear the damage that is done both to individuals without housing and to our society as a whole.
A “voice from poverty”, Dr. Donna Beegle, closes the film with the plea: “There’s nothing that matches making a difference for your fellow human beings. … Let me use what’s in my hands … to see if I can’t leave you in a better place.”
We can all make a difference. There is hope.
Followed by panel discussion with Joseph Hufnagel, The Landing Place director; and Melody Lewis-Kane, BUILDING HOPE film producer.
Co-presented by Homeworthy and the Strand Theatre
