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It's a gray weekend here in western Maine, with chilly gusts that stir and snap at the leaves that have begun to pile up. We're sliding out of the golden early pre-fall days and into the crisp crackle of the season. The leaf-peepers are probably on their way.

I have a story out today that dives into homelessness in the region, which looks different than it does in Maine’s cities: families living in campers and tents in driveways, students couch-surfing their way through high school, employees paying to use a public shower every morning before showing up at work. The advocates I spoke to said the people coming to them for help are fighting hard. 

“Mainers, especially rural Mainers, are very resourceful,” said Noelle Coyne, a program director for Western Maine Community Action. You can read more in the story below.

Farmington’s only homeless shelter closed in 2020. Efforts to open a new one have failed. 

It has been more than four years since Farmington’s only emergency homeless shelter closed. Today, despite efforts by advocacy groups, there are no emergency shelter beds in the western Maine town — or elsewhere in Franklin County. 

That’s been the case since 2020, when Western Maine Homeless Outreach's shelter in the basement of the Living Waters Assembly of God church on Route 2 closed during the height of the COVID pandemic. In the past five years, two attempts to bring low-barrier, emergency shelter beds into Farmington failed.

Read this story by Ben Hanstein of The Maine Monitor.

While The Maine Monitor does not place its content behind paywalls, some newsrooms we link to in this newsletter may. 

Gun safety coalition launches campaign to get a red flag law on the Maine ballot. | Portland Press Herald

ICYMI from The Monitor: Clerks across Maine share their thoughts on election security ahead of November. | The Maine Monitor

The Agnes Gray Elementary School has been boarded up as part of a winterization process following its closure earlier this year, causing some dismay in West Paris. | Advertiser Democrat

Franklin County will benefit from more than $1 million in federal funding to reimburse the cost of emergency repairs to roads damaged in the June 2023 rainstorm. The state roads include 4, 133, 140 and 156 in Jay and Chesterville. | Daily Bulldog

ICYMI from The Monitor: Members of the state Infrastructure Rebuilding and Resilience Commission wonder whether a public insurance option could protect both the uninsured and the state’s own public infrastructure. | The Maine Monitor

Included within the 3,500 acres of land that have been placed in a state conversation program are projects in Oxford and Somerset County. | Portland Press Herald

Chesterville will hold a special town meeting on Sept. 26 to discuss the allocation of the town's remaining American Rescue Plan Act funding. | Franklin Journal

Somerset County Commissioners support contracting with an AI company that helps draft police reports. | Morning Sentinel

Dixfield will hold a special election on Oct. 25 to fill a vacancy on the town's select board. | Rumford Falls Times

An 11-year-old student has been charged with terrorizing in relation to an incident that drew the Maine State Police Bomb Squad to a MSAD 53 school bus and closed a road in New Gloucester. | WMTW

Know of a story that we should be digging into? Send it to our newsroom. 

The Maine Monitor is a publication of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, an independent and nonpartisan nonprofit news organization that produces investigative journalism. We believe news is a public good and keep our news free to access. We have no paywall and do not charge for our newsletters. If you value the reporting we do for Maine, please consider making a donation! We cannot do this reporting without your support.