Project Home

Happy Pride Month!

This month — and every month — we celebrate LGBTQ+ Mainers and honor the organizations working to build safety, belonging, visibility, and justice for LGBTQ+ communities.

We’re especially grateful for the work of the Equality Community Center - ECC, MaineTransNet, and GLAAD, whose advocacy, education, community-building, and storytelling help create a more inclusive world.

At Project Home, we believe everyone deserves stable housing, strong support, and the chance to thrive as their full selves.

Learn more and support their work:
Equality Community Center: https://eccmaine.org/
MaineTransNet: https://www.mainetrans.net/
GLAAD: https://glaad.org/

People need people.

When life falls apart, most of us do not need a lecture. We need someone to help us find the next right step.

That is what Project Home does.

We help Mainers secure housing, stay housed, connect to healthcare, and build financial stability — not with one-size-fits-all solutions, but with real support for real lives.

Because housing stability is not just about a key.

It is about having people in your corner.

We can be their people.

An empty church building. A housing shortage. A creative partnership.

Project Home is working with the City of S**o Government on a proposal to turn the former Methodist church at 12 School Street into seven affordable apartments.

The plan includes homes for young adults aging out of foster care, affordable units for local workers, and a shared multi-purpose space for residents, nonprofits, and the city.

This is what housing solutions can look like: public-private partnership, adaptive reuse, and a commitment to making sure more Mainers have a stable place to call home.

We are grateful to the City of S**o for its vision and partnership — and excited about what this historic building could become.

Read the article below.

https://sacobaynews.com/developer-seeks-funding-to-turn-former-saco-church-into-affordable-housing.htm

The housing crisis in Maine is a math problem — and the numbers don’t add up.

A typical Maine family of four renting their home earns about $36,000 a year — that's roughly $3,000 a month.

Average rent? About $1,500 a month.

That leaves just $1,500 for everything else: food, childcare, gas, utilities, car repairs, healthcare, school needs, and every unexpected emergency life throws at a family.

And feeding a family of four can cost about $1,400 a month.

That is not a budgeting problem.
That is impossible math.

At Project Home, we intervene before families fall into homelessness — helping working Mainers stabilize their housing, improve their health, and build long-term financial security.

This crisis is not caused by personal failure.
It is caused by numbers that simply do not work.

And impossible math requires collective action.

May is National Foster Care Month.

At Project Home, 20% of the people we serve are young adults, ages 18–24, who have aged out of the foster care system.

Without the right support, that transition can become a direct pipeline into homelessness. Nearly half of foster youth experience homelessness within one year of leaving care.

Project Home is working to disrupt that pipeline by helping these young people secure stable housing and build the support they need to move toward independence — from health care and employment to education, budgeting, life skills, and community connection.

In partnership with the Portland Housing Authority, and with advocacy and leadership from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, we’ve helped house 40+ young adults with foster care experience — with zero evictions.

Because aging out of foster care should not mean aging into homelessness. 💛

Project Home Trust is our direct cash assistance program for single mothers — and this Mother’s Day, we’re celebrating the strength, love, and determination of these moms who are building brighter futures for their families. 💐

Last weekend, one Trust mom crossed the finish line with her daughter after introducing her to marathon running. It’s a beautiful reminder that when moms have support, stability, and breathing room, the impact doesn’t stop with them — it carries forward to their children, families, and communities.

This is what investing in moms looks like: confidence, connection, opportunity, and joy.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms building brighter futures, one step at a time. 💛

This Mother’s Day, we’re celebrating the incredible moms in Project Home Trust — women who are building stability, possibility, and brighter futures for their families every single day.

A huge thank you to United Way of Southern Maine for these beautiful gift baskets from The Holy Donut, helping us share some much-deserved joy with our Trust moms this weekend. 😍💛

When we invest in moms, the impact reaches far beyond one person. It supports children, strengthens families, and helps create the foundation every household deserves: stability, dignity, and care.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms in our Project Home community! We see you, we celebrate you, and we’re cheering you on.

Big congratulations to Brian Goldstone on receiving the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction for There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America.

We were honored to host Brian in Portland this March for a powerful conversation about housing instability and homelessness.

His work shines a light on the growing reality of the working homeless and working poor—people who are employed, raising families, and still unable to afford housing and basic necessities. This is what Project Home sees every day here in Maine.

Too often, homelessness is imagined only as tents or shelters. But much of housing instability is invisible: families living in cars or motels, doubling up with others, or living one unexpected expense away from eviction.

A special thank you to Nicole Witherbee of the John T. Gorman Foundation, who guided the conversation with such thoughtfulness, compassion, and insight.

We’re also grateful to our partners at Mechanics' Hall and Print: A Bookstore for helping bring this important discussion to our community.

Congratulations again, Brian—and thank you for helping make these stories visible.

No parent should have to choose between medicine and rent.

But for too many families, that’s the reality.

One unexpected expense—a prescription, a car repair, a missed paycheck—can put everything at risk.

At Project Home, we step in at that moment.

Not after an eviction.
Not after a family loses their home.

Before.

Because a small intervention at the right time can keep a family housed, healthy, and moving forward.

This is what prevention looks like. And it works.

In Maine, hundreds of young people age out of foster care each year.

Too many are expected to find housing on their own—with no credit, no rental history, and no safety net.

At Project Home, we’re working to change that.

Through our Foster Youth to Independence (FYI) program, we partner with the Portland Housing Authority to help young adults (18–24) secure and keep stable housing.

That means:
Housing vouchers that cover rent
Hands-on navigation to find and keep an apartment
Real-time support to prevent eviction when challenges arise

Because getting the keys is one thing. Keeping the housing is everything.

This is how we interrupt the foster care–to–homelessness pipeline.

And it works.