AUGUSTA — A legislative committee has given unanimous support to a bill that would provide up to $1 million in state funds to help launch a project that would build up to 21 cabins for homeless veterans.

The bill, LD 1062, sponsored by state Rep. Jared Golden, D-Lewiston, is meant to jump-start the Cabin in the Woods project, which is being headed by Volunteers of America and would be located on the Veterans Administration Togus medical campus, which sits on land in both Augusta and the bordering town of Chelsea.

The Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee approved an amendment to the bill requiring a binding service agreement between Volunteers for America and the VA to ensure the federal government will provide services to the veterans housed at the project. The amendment also included a requirement that Volunteers of America enter into an agreement with any veteran living at the facility detailing the services for which they will be eligible.

The amendment is aimed at allaying concerns from the Maine Bureau of Veterans Services, which would have oversight of the project, including allowing the bureau to conduct quarterly site inspections to ensure quality control.

The bureau’s director, Adria Horn, voiced her support for the bill, provided it included guarantees that once it was built, the veterans living there would be provided the services and medical care they need.

The project is meant for both male and female veterans and includes several two-bedroom cabins that are meant to help facilitate the reunification of homeless veterans with their spouses and children.

The cabins would be fully furnished and would be built to Americans with Disabilities Act standards at an estimated cost of $191,000 per structure.

The site plan calls for a 4,000-square-foot community center that would be used for a variety of activities, according to Julia Wilcock, vice president of business development for Volunteers of America Northern New England.

Wilcock said the cost per unit for the cabins was below the national average for similarly designed structures. 

State funding, which would cover about a quarter of the project’s estimated $4 million price tag, will be used to help draw matching grants from private donors or federal grants that may be available for the project.

Other lawmakers on the panel vowed to help Golden find ways to fund the state’s share of the project should that become an issue as lawmakers on the Legislature’s budget-writing Appropriations Committee look to craft the state’s next $6.57 billion, two-year budget.

Golden’s bill calls for a one-time appropriation from revenue the state collects from the real estate transfer tax. 

Volunteers of America already has secured a long-term lease agreement with the VA for the 11 acres on which the cabins would be built.

Golden, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he was pleased with the strong committee support for the measure because it will send a compelling signal to the full Legislature, which will take up the measure in the days ahead.

sthistle@sunjournal.com