Eunice Bentley tosses a pillow onto a bed Friday at State Street Church, where members have been renovating and preparing rooms in the parish house with state funding to provide shelter for homeless families. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

For the last two winters, State Street Church in Portland has opened its doors to provide overnight emergency shelter for a few families when the city’s shelters were full.

About a dozen people at a time have stayed in the Fireside Room, a gathering space in the parish house at 159 State St. that’s named for its large fireplace. Church members converted it to a temporary shelter lined with fold-away cots and chairs. Families used the adjacent commercial kitchen to make meals.

On Monday, the church will begin its third winter as an overflow shelter for Portland’s family shelter – but now families will be housed in dedicated space in the basement of the parish house that’s been completely renovated over the last two years.

Funded by $450,000 in grants from MaineHousing and the Cora L. Brown Foundation, the purpose-built shelter will house up to 24 people who have nowhere else to go on cold winter nights.

“We’re basically keeping people from freezing to death,” said the Rev. Bryan Breault, pastor of the United Church of Christ congregation.

The church is hosting an open house Sunday from 1-4 p.m., when many of the shelter’s volunteer staff will get a first look at the 4,000-square-foot space. The shelter is staffed at night by a coalition of 17 faith communities across Greater Portland that help Breault’s congregation run the shelter.

Several volunteers were putting the finishing touches on the shelter Friday morning. Some were making beds. Others were setting up tables in the Fireside Room, which is where shelter residents will have meals.

“It’s an exciting moment for all of us,” Breault said. “We’re going to celebrate this a little bit.”

Pedro Miguel tucks his son Denilson into bed at the Fireside Room in State Street Church on March 23, 2023. About a dozen people would sleep in this room before the church got funding to renovate its basement into dedicated shelter space. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

The shelter is licensed by the city and built to meet modern construction and safety codes. It will operate mid-November through mid-April from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Monday through Saturday, when residents must leave the shelter during the day. It will be open all day Sundays and holidays.

The church began hosting overflow from the city’s family shelter in early 2023, when Portland was struggling to accommodate an influx of asylum seekers from the southern U.S. border. It hosted asylum seekers last winter and is expecting more to arrive Monday evening.

The family shelter at State Street Church in Portland will open on Monday. “We’re basically keeping people from freezing to death,” said the Rev. Bryan Breault. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

When church members agreed unanimously in 2022 to provide emergency shelter, the only requirements were that it be for families who were unhoused during the winter.

“So far, it has been immigrants, because that’s the need,” Breault said.

The city’s 150-bed family shelter has been at capacity for several years now, according to city spokesperson Jessica Grondin.

“The city is always supportive and appreciative of our community partners who help us provide emergency housing,” she said.

While the state funds didn’t come with a certain time frame, the church intends to operate the winter family shelter as needed for the foreseeable future, Breault said.

The dedicated shelter space was built in the former location of the church’s Clothes Closet, which provides free clothing and household items to people in need and was moved to a larger, upgraded space during the pandemic. When the parish house was built in the early 1920s, the basement included rooms for scout meetings and church dinners.

Debra Yoo puts a pillow case on a pillow Friday as she sets up a bed in a room at State Street Church. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Sean Boyles of Centerline Construction in Freeport, the church’s general contractor, wore out two pairs of steel-toed boots working on the shelter project, which included gutting the space, removing a channel of concrete, digging down into shale bedrock and installing all new walls and utility systems.

“I was on my hands and knees a lot,” Boyles said. “It’s been a challenging project, especially working on a building of this age. You just form a relationship with the building and work with it.”

Boyles, who isn’t a church member, also did the work at reduced cost, and he talked many of the subcontractors into doing the same. Briburn Architects and Ripcord Engineering provided architectural, plumbing and ventilation design services for free.

“You just do what you can, when you can,” Boyles said.

The shelter includes four bedrooms for families that can hold up to six beds each; two single bedrooms for overnight staff; a large bathroom with several sinks, toilets and showers; a self-contained accessible bathroom with sink, toilet and shower; a laundry room and a living room area.

Sean Boyles of Center Line Construction has handled much of the renovating at State Street Church as they have been preparing rooms in the parish house to provide shelter for homeless families. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Breault noted that all guests are assigned from the city’s family shelter. The church shelter doesn’t have the staff or training to accommodate walk-in requests.

The shelter project has been a fulfilling and eye-opening experience for all church members who have been involved, Breault said.

David Morin, a retired pediatrician who lives in South Portland, was the clerk of the works. On site almost every day, he kept an eye on progress and reported regularly to Breault.

“All you have to do is see a family in zero-degree weather to feel you need to do something,” Morin said. “This was something I could do to help.”

State Street Church members Gary Burnett, left; Eunice Bentley and Landis Gabelset up a dining area Friday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Eunice Bentley, chair of the church’s missions board, said working on the shelter project aligns with her faith and helps to counteract widespread anti-immigrant rhetoric.

“I’ve learned so much from the families who have stayed here, and they are so appreciative,” Bentley said. “We’re doing the work. We’re the feet on the ground. We’re doing what Jesus would do.”

Other faith communities that are providing volunteers to staff the shelter at State Street Church are the Baha’i Community, Trinity Episcopal Church, Williston-Immanuel United Church, Woodfords Congregational Church and First Parish in Portland; Congregation Bet Ha’am and First Congregational Church in South Portland; Tuttle Road Community Church and Congregational Church in Cumberland; Falmouth Congregational Church and Foreside Community Church in Falmouth; First Universalist Church of Yarmouth; First Congregational-Christian Church in New Gloucester; North Yarmouth Congregational Church, and South Freeport Congregational Church.