🔒Portland project pairs child care expansion with affordable housing

Portland’s Youth and Family Outreach Center has broken ground on a $28 million site designed to address two persistent challenges for lower-income families: child care and housing. When completed, the facility at 331 Cumberland Ave. will double the number of child care slots to 110 and offer 60 apartments, along with additional programming space. The nonprofit had previously operated out of a chapel in the city's Bayside neighborhood.

Last year, the organization bought the former Maria’s Restaurant building next door and demolished that building along with the chapel to make space for a new 12,000-square-foot child care center and a six-story apartment complex. Youth and Family Outreach has continued to operate child care services in a temporary space at 1065 Broadway in South Portland. “Youth and Family Outreach has been in existence since 1846, and what we are doing with this project is exactly what the folks back then always envisioned that our scrappy little nonprofit would continue to do over time, and we have," Executive Director Camelia Babson-Haley told Mainebiz. “What we are building is a family resource hub for the community where our most vulnerable neighbors can come to feel safe and get their and their children's needs met in a nurturing, high-quality, welcoming setting in downtown Portland," she added. Post-demolition cleanup at the site is underway. Construction is expected to begin this fall, once the organization has closed on a loan through the Maine State Housing Authority.

Developers Collaborative, based in Portland, is managing and developing the project. Falmouth-based Penobscot General Contractors and Invivid Architecture, based in Portland, are also on the team. Of the 60 new apartments, 48 will be affordable to a range of income levels.

Fundraising

Youth and Family Outreach has been fundraising for close to five years for the project, which Babson-Haley said is about $1.5 million short of its goal. Past board president Michael Bourque, an alumni parent, is co-chairing the capital campaign. "Fundraising is always a challenge, especially from an organization that has never made a broad appeal to the public in its long history," Bourque, who is president and CEO of Portland-based MEMIC, told Mainebiz. He also noted that the project has already gained broad support and needs "just a little push to get to the finish line." "The more people hear about it, the more they appreciate that this is a smart and innovative way to create a better community," he added. Maine State Housing Authority has provided a 4% Low Income Housing Tax Credit award, State Affordable Housing Credit allocation and federal Housing Trust Funds. The county of Cumberland has provided HOME-ARP funds, administered by the city of Portland, and the city also provided local Housing Trust Funds and Tax Increment Financing. The Portland-based Sam L. Cohen Foundation provided a large grant, while a Senate earmark through the U.S. Department of Energy and another through the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development are supporting the project. Businesses, foundations and individuals have also donated to the effort.