A new program will help 20 single mothers in Maine maintain financial and housing stability by offering direct payments of $1,000 for expenses.
About 70 mothers who have received housing through the Quality Housing Coalition, a Portland-based non-profit, applied to participate, and 20 were chosen through a lottery system.
The first of 12 payments went out last month through the coalition's Project HOME Trust program. Participants will receive their second check Saturday.
Peace Mutesi, a project coordinator and single mother who has experienced homelessness, said the money can be used to pay for child care, home essentials and car repairs, with no strings attached.
"We want to see what does $1,000 — and most importantly, a community of support — what change does it have in somebody's life?" she said Friday at a press event in Portland.
For a single mother named Ruth, the cash has been helpful.
"So far I've been utilizing the support first to purchase things for my son, and then to purchase things for my home, essential things," she said in Portuguese, speaking through a translator.
The women receiving support through the program are part of a study to contrast them with 20 others who are not receiving assistance. The coalition said the results will help determine whether direct payments lift single mothers out of poverty and whether the program could be scaled up throughout the state.
The organization pointed to a similar assistance program in Jackson, Mississippi, which has served as an inspiration for the Maine pilot. That Jackson program, founded by Carol and Joe Wishcamper of Freeport, has so far demonstrated successful health, financial and social outcomes for its participants.
The vast majority of participants in the Maine pilot are asylum seekers or refugees who are not receiving federal benefits or local general assistance, Mutesi said. She described the Project HOME Trust pilot as a way to the bridge the gap for those who have hit the "benefits cliff."
"Being a single mom alone here is so hard," Mutesi said. "It is hard for everyone, but let's imagine you are alone, and you have to work, you have to provide for the kids, you need to spend enough time with the kids so you can nurture them and help them grow and develop and you have to be out there working two or three jobs. It's really, really hard."
The participants are caring for 38 children and live in Portland and the city's surrounding communities, as well as Augusta, Brunswick, Poland and Lewiston.
More than $500,000 has been raised to support the program for the next two years. The group also received a community block development grant through the city of Portland to support its work.
