Portland-based Preble Street, which provides services to people experiencing homelessness, hunger and poverty, is getting two federal grants totaling more than a million dollars.
One is to help homeless and at-risk LGBTQ youths in southern Maine find supportive housing, and the second is for efforts to combat human trafficking.
Preble Street’s Elena Schmidt says almost 40 percent of homeless youth report being LGBTQ. She says $625,000 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services seeks to address their particular needs.
Schmidt says Preble Street and its partners will be providing case management services and connections to landlords.
“The kinds of support that a young person might need in learning how to budget, in learning how to live independently, how to understand leases, how to be a good tenant and to take on the responsibility of maintaining an independent apartment,” she says. “These are young adults who are able to live on their own and have not developed the skills that they need to do that, but, with support, they can be quite successful.”
Schmidt says a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Justice Department will allow an anti-trafficking coalition created by Preble Street in 2014 to continue.
