AUGUSTA — City officials are considering using a small portion of opioid lawsuit settlement funds to close a funding gap at the Augusta Emergency Overnight Warming Center to pay its staff and an outstanding oil bill the center doesn’t have the money to pay.

The center, which provides overnight shelter to local people who are homeless during the cold winter months, is short on cash needed to pay its two year-round workers, and a $750 oil bill. Officials anticipate the center will receive a Maine State Housing Authority grant around Sept. 1, but that leaves a funding gap to fill to keep paying its director and manager until then.

So Ward 4 City Councilor Eric Lind, member of an advisory board to the Augusta Emergency Overnight Warming Center, a program of South Parish Congregational Church, proposed the city, which so far this year has provided no funding to the warming center, use $13,450 from its opioid settlement funds to close the funding gap so it can pay its bills and staff, during the four payrolls between now and the anticipated grant funding.

“I’ve often said I’m proud of that warming center, because we keep people alive, and you can’t rehabilitate someone if they’re not alive,” Lind told city councilors recently in making the proposal. “If you go there in the wintertime and watch these people come in, it’s pretty heartbreaking. It’s nice to see them come in and get warm, and I know a lot of these people are reaching out and getting help. So I guess that’s from my heart, to say please just help us out, that’s kind of where I’m at. It’s not a lot of money, out of a half million bucks.”

The money would come from Augusta’s share of settlements with pharmaceutical companies.

Augusta currently has about $933,000 in opioid settlement funds in the bank, about $500,000 of which is not yet designated for anything, according to City Manager Jared Mills.

City councilors are expected to vote at their meeting Thursday to transfer the funds to the warming center, to ensure it can make the next few payrolls until grant funds come in.

Multiple councilors expressed support for doing so at their July 10 informational meeting, saying it’s an appropriate use of the opioid funds because some of the people who use the warming center were, and in some case still are, affected by opioid addiction.

“Given the urgency of this need and lack of other, similar, services in our city, it makes complete sense to me to use this funding to fill the gap for the overnight warming center,” Stephanie Sienkiewicz, an at-large councilor, said. “This seems, to me, another common sense use of the funding. The harm to the population those funds are supposed to help, if the center were to have something catastrophic happen financially, would be huge. And we don’t have a backup plan. I can’t think of anything more urgent to have than a place for people to be overnight. I would love to see (the warming center) be able to expand to 365 days a year at some point. State of Maine, keep listening, we need your help.”

When the warming center first opened in 2022, the city contributed $124,000 from Augusta’s allotment of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to help launch it. The proposal was also awarded a $30,000 grant from the United Way of Kennebec Valley that year.

The center received $400,000 from MaineHousing in 2023 to help pay for building improvements to comply with city and state building safety codes.

This year, according to director Julia Stone, and warming center did not ask for any city funding. Its $345,000 budget was funded by raising money and multiple grants including two from MaineHousing, one for winter warming shelters for $218,170, and one for long-term solutions for $80,179.

Lind said cost overruns, including on building renovations, left the warming center without enough cash on hand to get through until the next round of grant funding.

During the summer when the warming center is closed, Stone still works full time while Rob Flannery, center manager, works full time during the season and part time during the off season. Both are responsible for researching, applying for, and securing grant funding for the upcoming season, creating and implementing fundraising events, maintaining connections to other organizations, hiring and training new staff, and ensuring the center is cleaned and stocked up and prepared for the next season.