Scott Denny in his new apartment at Winter Landing, a new affordable housing complex for people over 62 and people with disabilities, in Portland on Friday. Denny lost his apartment in Portland after a roommate left and he couldn’t afford it anymore. He was connected with a social worker who helped him move into the Winter Landing building. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

Scott Denny spent most of this fall in Portland’s homeless shelter.

But a few weeks ago, the 63-year-old moved into his own apartment in Winter Landing, a new affordable housing complex in the West End.

The development has 52 units for people aged 62 and over or disabled. The neighboring building, the Equinox, has 43 affordable housing units for low-income families.

Both Winter Landing and Equinox are part of the Mercy Hospital Renovation which was largely completed last fall. The project aimed to create a campus of market-rate, affordable, workforce-friendly units all on a large parcel of land and was a combined effort of Redfern, New Heights, Portland Housing Authority and Community Housing of Maine. There is a large courtyard on the property common to all buildings.

Winter Landing, a new affordable housing complex for people over 62 and people with disabilities in Portland, seen on Friday, November 22. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

Denny is one of 19 people who have moved from the city’s homeless shelter to the new complex in recent weeks.

In October, after losing his home, living in his car for a month and ultimately getting into an accident, Denny said, he went to the shelter. He had never been homeless before. He went to college, got married, raised four children and worked for more than a decade running a pharmacy in Vermont.

Going to the shelter was strange, he said. He felt like he had lost his independence.

“When you have control over your life, things go pretty well, but when you lose that control, it’s difficult. Things get bad quickly,” he says.

After living at the shelter for two months, Denny said his social worker told him about Winter Landing. He doesn’t have a Section 8 housing voucher and can’t get one because the federal government freeze the program in July, when it ran out of allocated funds. He is retired but receives $1,575 a month in Social Security. His rent in Winter Landing is $1,122 a month and he has to pay for electricity and internet, but he decided to try to make it work.

Denny said he felt nervous at first about living on such a tight budget, but moving into his own place made him feel like he was regaining some control over his life.

“Moving here is like finding some independence and some peace and quiet,” he said.

Denny said his case manager regularly comes over with a box of food and helps him budget.

Joshua Ruitto, Portland’s director of Housing and Community Services, said this type of support for residents is crucial.

“I’ve seen people fail when they had no one to lean on or turn to. It’s crucial to have that support system in place when someone moves in,” he said.

Winter Landing had 15 units reserved for people coming directly from the municipal shelter.

Cullen Ryan, executive director of Community Housing of Maine, outside Winter Landing, a new affordable housing complex for people over 62 and people with disabilities in Portland, Friday. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

The complex also offers 15 project-based housing choice vouchers for people with disabilities. So instead of individuals having to apply for these vouchers, they are automatically offered to them when they rent their apartment if they meet the criteria. Since these vouchers were intended for the project before the freezing of vouchers went into effect, they could still be used, according to Cullen Ryan, executive director of Community Housing of Maine, an affordable housing developer in Portland.

For those initial 15 spots, Ruitto and others looked for people who had been in shelter for 180 days and were disabled or 62 and older. Staff made a list of everyone who met those criteria, then went to talk to them to try to identify those who didn’t yet have a housing plan.

At the end of October, they were a group of 13 people who all signed leases on the same day. The city provided them with furniture and helped them get settled, according to Ruitto.

So far, 20 people exiting homelessness have moved in since the complex opened in October, 19 from the shelter and one from the city’s Housing Opportunities for People Living in Encampments (HOPE) program.

Nearly all of the units, 46 of 52, have been rented, Ryan said. He hopes the other six will be leased by the end of the year.

“People will never know who’s who in the building and I think that’s the most important part,” Ryan said. “No one ever needs to think of people living in these buildings as homeless because they are housed and they are now part of the neighborhood.”

Ryan said he saw people burst into tears as they moved in.

“Housing is transformative. I’ve seen people look 10 years younger after finding housing. Having a stable place to sleep at night is life-changing,” he said.

Several units at the nearby Equinox are reserved for families coming from the family shelter. Mike Guthrie, director of the Portland Family Shelter, said he expects those families to move in over the next few weeks.

Ryan said he also hopes to rent several units at the Equinox to people participating in the McAuley Residence program, a transitional housing program for women recovering from substance use disorder.

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