The goal, he said, is to revitalize the spot and turn ”something that was considered a negative now into a positive in the community.”
Schemengees has been closed since the night of the shooting, which was committed by an Army reservist from Bowdoin who had a diagnosis of psychosis. Of the 18 people who were killed during the shooting, 10 were shot at the bar and the rest at a Lewiston bowling alley,authorities have said.
In December, the bar’s owner, Kathy Lebel, said she was struggling with what to do with the business. She rented the space and said she would look for another location to reopen.
“I think I’m tired of thinking. I’m tired of reinventing,” she told the Globe at the time. “But then, I also have a hard time saying, that’s how it ended.”
Schemengees is on Lincoln Street and a few minutes’ drive from downtown Lewiston. He said the site is large enough to provide temporary housing as well as other services for homeless residents.
Boilard’s proposal to open a warming center at the bar property received state funding, and is expected to open Nov. 15. Scott Harriman,president of Lewiston’s City Council, said the warming center does not require a license from the city or authorization from the council.
The pantry issigning a year-long lease for the bar property for the warming center and will be using that time to seek funding for a shelter, including from the state and federal governments, Boilard said.
Harriman said councilors voted Sept. 3 to work with Boilard’s organization to open a new shelter in the city. No decision has been made on the location, he said.
For the warming center to become a shelter at the bar property, Harriman said, the City Council would have to approve changes to local regulations, including zoning,as well as allow a license to operate the shelter.He signaled support for reusing the site to aid some of the city’s homeless residents.
“I’m glad to see that this location known to so many as a place of heartbreak and tragedy could soon become a place of help and hope,” Harriman said.
White ribbons placed on a telephone pole blew in the wind at Schemengees Bar and Grille after the mass shooting.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff
Boilard — who has lived most of his life in Lewiston — and his family launched their organization in 2017, he said. It operates a food pantry, a community resource center, and a place where people can shop for donated clothing.
Some of their work also includes assisting many of the city’s new immigrants and refugees as they navigate obtaining housing and starting their lives in Lewiston, he said, along with serving local homeless residents.
“We work very closely with the unhoused population when they’re getting into apartments for the first time, a lot of them don’t have any of the basic necessities that most of us [have],” Boilard said.
Statewide, 2,695 people experienced homelessness in Maine on one night in January, including people living in emergency motel rooms, according to the Maine State Housing Authority.
That figure is down about 1,000 from the previous year, but the reduction is not the result of fewer people facing homelessness, the agency reported. Instead, it is linked to the end of pandemic funds used to cover the cost of many motel rooms used to house homeless Mainers, according to a recent report by the state housing authority.
“The count of those without shelter, in traditional shelters, and in transitional housing all remain elevated,” the report said.
In Lewiston, nearly a fifth the city’s residents live in poverty, according to US Census data. The city of around 39,000, which is about two hours’ drive from Boston, has a median household income of about $54,000 — about $14,000 less than Maine as a whole, Census data show.
Datsy Aponte, with the Lewiston Housing Authority, said she connects local households who are homeless or at risk of homelessness with housing or services to help them remain in their homes. In the past year, she’s provided those services to about 280 households, she said.
She said there are already four shelters in Lewiston, including one for young people aged 12 to 19, plus a shelter for women, one for men, and a facility for any locals who need a place to stay.
Aponte supports using Schemengees as a shelter because it would provide a critical service for the community, she said.
“The property is perfect for the population,” Aponte said. “I think it will reduce the number of homeless.”
Ivy Scott of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com.
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Publish date : 2024-09-10 23:00:00
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