After a year of construction, the doors opened this week on an expanded facility at Trinity Jubilee Center in Lewiston.
The center is a social services hub for Lewiston and Auburn.
The center outgrew its rented space in the Episcopal church’s basement at 247 Bates St. and built an 11,000-square-foot facility at 123 Bates St., more than quadrupling its space.
“We are thrilled to be opening the doors to the new facility,” said Erin Reed, the center’s executive director.
Tax credits
Financing included a a $6.8 million allocation of new markets tax credits provided by Evernorth Rural Ventures, a subsidiary of Burlington, Vt., nonprofit Evernorth, which has an office in Portland and serves low- and moderate-income people of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont with affordable housing and community investments using new markets tax credits.
The federal new markets tax credit program, made permanent by Congress in 2025, aims to attract private investment needed to reinvigorate struggling local economies by permitting individual and corporate investors to receive a tax credit against their federal income tax in exchange for making equity investments in specialized financial intermediaries called community development entities.
The credit totals 39% of the original investment amount and is claimed over a period of seven years.
1,000 clients daily
The expanded Trinity Jubilee Center is expected to grow its ability to meet community needs for food and resource security, shower and laundry facilities, and other essential services, allowing the center to serve more clients than before, according to a news release.
Founded in 1991 as a soup kitchen, the center now serves over 1,000 adults and children each day through its day shelter, soup kitchen, food pantry, diaper bank and resource center.
The new building includes an expanded area for food distribution, two medical exam rooms, a waiting room, private rooms for on-site mental health and substance misuse services, an upgraded kitchen, a walk-in refrigerator and freezer, workstations for job placement services and space for partners to host workshops.
Financing included private and corporate donors, philanthropic foundations and a $2 million federal grant awarded as congressionally directed spending. The center has raised $4.77 million to date.
“This purpose-built facility will enable Trinity Jubilee to expand its capacity by approximately 10%, allowing it to serve more than 5,000 people each year and markedly improve the quality and impact of the essential community services it provides,” said Beth Boutin, Evernorth’s vice president of community investments.
In the last five years, Evernorth, through its low-income housing tax credit syndication work, has invested more than $52 million of equity into affordable housing development in Lewiston. Most recently, two investments totaling $29.7 million are a result of a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Choice Neighborhood Implementation award, bringing $30 million in federal grant dollars to revitalize and reimagine the Tree Streets Neighborhood, where the Trinity Jubilee Center is located.