MAINE, USA — The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development has selected the Bangor Housing Authority and the Lewiston Housing Authority to participate in its Moving to Work Demonstration program (MTW).
MTW is a four-decade-old program established during President Bill Clinton’s presidency. The program is designed to fund public housing authorities to create programs that will empower low-income housing residents to become self-sufficient and increase housing choices.
Historically, large cities across the country are selected for the program. The United States Congress recently granted authority to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to select MTW agencies after a 10-year hiatus. With this round of selections, smaller cities were considered, a win for the cities of Bangor and Lewiston in the state of Maine.
John Concannon is MTW's program director with the Office of Public Housing Investments for HUD. Concannon says the MTW is a "highly selective program," and for the city of Lewiston and Bangor, it’s an enviable position to be included in a group of 125 out of 3,000 housing authorities in the country.
"They are high-performing housing [authorities]. You must be high-performing for HUD. We were happy to select Bangor’s as part of this initiative that’s going to be looking at how can we improve asset building, that is to build assets for residents who are in our low-income housing programs,” Concannon explained.
The designation gives the Bangor Housing Authority more flexibility on how it uses federal funds. Concannon says that's what makes it "highly selective."
Michael Myatt is Bangor Housing Authority’s executive. Myatt says this designation comes at a time when the agency needs it most, to support progressive plans being made.
"We are going to provide economic opportunities, educational opportunities, helping folks graduate high school, get that college diploma. Whatever their goals are—goals have to work towards meaningful employment. That means something different for everybody," Myatt said.
Elizabeth Marsh says partnerships with local agencies and businesses that support the Family Self Sufficiency Program (FSS) can help provide education, employment, economic, and wealth-building opportunities for Bangor’s low-income residents.
"Moving to Work allows us the autonomy to be able to serve all of our residents with the FSS Program to hire more coaches, to increase the number of services that we offer," Marsh said.
With the MTW designation, the Bangor Housing Authority, which serves 130 low-income residents, can now serve 400.
“We've had families graduate and purchase homes and that's ultimately our dream and goal for all our residents,” Marsh expressed.
The goal is to "end generational poverty" of low-income housing residents with progressive plans being made.