Nick Haft, left, Preble Street rapid rehousing supervisor, and Michael Roy, Preble Street veteran housing supervisor, stand Friday in front of the Lewiston Preble Street office on Sabattus Street. The Lewiston office will host an open house Thursday to highlight their services to local social service agencies, behavioral health services, and Auburn and Lewiston city administrators and elected officials. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

LEWISTON — A Portland-based program that looks to move people out of homelessness and into long-term housing is expanding into the Lewiston-Auburn area this month.

With the help of federal funding, Preble Street’s “rapid rehousing” program hopes to serve 30 Lewiston and Auburn households and 35 individuals in the next year, connecting them with permanent housing.

The Portland nonprofit created the program in 2020 and has seen success with the “housing first” model that identifies housing and provides move-in support and rental assistance to help keep people housed.

Preble Street announced plans to expand the program to the cities of Lewiston and Auburn early this year, shortly after U.S. Sen. Susan Collins announced more than $20 million was secured to combat homelessness in Maine. Preble Street has been earmarked to receive $2.4 million, which will support Lewiston-Auburn rapid rehousing, as well as six other Preble Street programs. New Beginnings in Lewiston and Safe Voices in Auburn also received roughly $160,000 each.

The organization is hosting a program launch Thursday, Aug. 15 at its Lewiston office at 984 ½ Sabattus St. in Lewiston.

According to program staff, the rapid rehousing program uses casework and financial assistance to help individuals and families experiencing homelessness find homes and “not become homeless again in the near future.”

A Portland Press Herald article on the Portland-area program said counselors try to pair clients with landlords who will be a good match, and the program makes sure clients can continue to afford rent and hold down work.

Nick Haft, rapid rehousing supervisor for the Lewiston program, said the organization wants to build on its relationships with landlords and property owners, as well as collaborate with current providers that are already doing the work “to build a broader base of resources for people who need them.”

“Housing work takes a community to be able to support folks,” he said. “Preble Street has a wraparound approach, but it truly takes so many other people and organizations to make this all work.”

He said the rollout event Thursday will hopefully help to engage other community partners as the program is launched. The city of Auburn has also provided support for Preble Street as it preps for the launch, he said.

The program is officially launching Monday, Aug. 12.

When the expansion was announced early this year, Andrew Bove, vice president of social work for Preble Street, said the organization was excited to add to the services that Preble Street provides in Androscoggin County.”

“It’s not magic, in fact it’s quite the opposite,” he said of housing programs. “We can decide as a community if we want programs like this and if we are willing to invest in them.”

Haft said the amount of rental assistance provided to clients is “intentionally flexible,” and depends on the client’s needs.

“There’s not a blanket approach,” he said. “And one thing that we’re always considering is stability.”

He said counselors look at multiple factors from the details of a potential lease to job prospects.

“We create a stability plan for people participating in the program because we want to help everyone stay in their leases,” he said. “And the rapid rehousing program has been very successful in keeping people in their lease.”

As of early this year, rapid rehousing had worked with 180 people, 126 of whom had moved into long-term housing. The program began in August 2020.