Their fundraising efforts are helping Tedford Housing build new emergency housing in Brunswick.
From 2020 to 2023, the number of people experiencing homelessness in Maine more than tripled. Even before the pandemic, Maine’s emergency shelters fielded more requests than they could accommodate. Tedford Housing, a homelessness-prevention organization whose programs include two emergency shelters, is determined to offer an effective answer. Beyond a safe place for guests to rebuild their lives, staff provides intensive case management and assistance with community-service navigation. Tedford serves additional homeless and at-risk neighbors on an outreach basis. This summer, the organization will break ground on a new emergency-housing building with increased capacity — thanks in part to help from generous neighbors.
Tedford was founded by the Brunswick Area Interfaith Council. Retired minister and Highland Green resident Frank Strasburger got involved in 2022, when Carolyn Eklund, a retired Episcopal priest and council leader, asked him to join a campaign committee working to raise $8.3 million for the building project. “Faith communities have always been one of the biggest pillars of Tedford support,” executive director Andrew Lardie says. “Carolyn knew Frank would have compassion for the cause.” For Strasburger, the effort felt natural. “The biblical principle of hospitality is part of what we as clergy are about,” he says. “We welcome people to our tables and under our roofs.”
Tedford’s shelters are considered emergency housing because, regardless of the length of an individual’s or family’s stay, the focus is to help them move on to a stable place to live. During each guest’s intake process, Tedford staff reviews the obstacles that have led to their housing crisis and discusses how to address each hurdle, one at a time. “Some people may be working, but their landlord sold their housing out from under them,” Lardie says. “That person’s resolution is relatively simple.” For others, who may lack income or health stability, the path to permanent housing can be more complicated. “There is no cap on how long somebody can stay at Tedford,” Lardie says.
Tedford’s primary service area includes 40 midcoast towns between Portland and Rockland, but the demand exceeds what its current facilities — 16 beds for unhoused adults and six units for families with children — can provide. “Last year, shelter requests were seven times our capacity,” Lardie says. “We’ve got to do more.” The new building will increase shelter capacity by 60 percent and consolidate adult housing, family housing, and administrative offices onto one campus. Groundbreaking is scheduled for August, with a goal to open the facility in fall 2025.
Strasburger moved to Highland Green, a 55+ lifestyle community set on 635 acres in Topsham, three years ago. When tasked with helping to raise capital for Tedford, he thought first of involving his neighbors. “Highland Green is full of wonderful people, many of whom are quite philanthropic,” Strasburger says. “Here was an opportunity to get involved locally.”
Strasburger met with neighbors to educate them about Tedford’s services and the new building. “I had a goal in my head that we would raise $100,000, but I didn’t say that to anybody because they would think I was crazy,” he says. In actuality, residents raised double that amount. Highland Green founder John Wasileski matched the first $150,000, and then challenged residents to raise an additional $50,000 he would also match. The combined $400,000 donation enables the group to name the family wing for Highland Green. “It’s not that we want the publicity, but we want to put it right out there: We’re here for you,” Strasburger says.
Greg and Donna Barmore have been acquainted with Tedford’s work since they bought their house in Harpswell in 1994. They moved to Highland Green in 2017 and were happy to contribute to the fundraising effort. “When Tedford came up with a plan to consolidate their facilities with their services co-located with their clients, that was a home-run idea,” Greg says. “It’s exciting they raised that much money that quickly, and we can now see the building going up.”
Don and Judy Auten moved to Highland Green from Pennsylvania in 2016. The couple attended a presentation about Tedford at Strasburger’s home and were impressed by the lastingness of the organization and its programs. “People need to have a place where they feel safe and secure,” Don says. “It’s important we help our neighbors as much as we can.”
Lardie says the campaign has been successful in part because the housing crisis made it clear that homelessness can happen to anyone. “We’re proud and excited that people have bought into this broadly,” Lardie says. “That said, the effort among Frank and his neighbors at Highland Green, and the additional support from John, is totally singular in this campaign. No one else has mobilized anything like it, and it’s really thrilling.”
Strasburger hopes the support will help people understand how much Highland Green residents care about the broader community. “We’re not gated, but it may look to the general public like we are,” he says. “It seemed to me we needed to overcome that. We are your neighbors, you are our neighbors, and we really want to be there for you.”
