Providing services that address homelessness has never been considered an easy task. But in the last year, organizations doing this work in the Bangor area have been facing an increasingly uphill battle.

The city’s only low-barrier emergency shelter nearly shut down last year before another nonprofit stepped in to take it over. One of Bangor’s largest organizations serving people experiencing homelessness, substance use disorder and HIV collapsed and ultimately closed this spring. Local organizations are losing funding and cutting back on services.

“The provider network at this point in time is really facing a reckoning,” said Jena Jones, the city’s homelessness response manager.

Experts agree that these types of organizations have never had enough funding or resources to tr

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