PORTLAND, Maine – As Maine continues to face shortages of affordable housing and child care, one organization wants to be part of the solution to both crises.

Portland's Youth and Family Outreach, a daycare and preschool, is planning an expansion.

According to director Camelia Babson-Haley, the building on the corner of Cumberland Ave. and Preble St. currently serves 58 children, but a new plan calls for replacing it with a six-story building that will serve 110 children.

“Every day, we have three or four people knocking on our door asking for child care,” Babson-Haley told NEWS CENTER Maine. “If we can get this project done, we can expand our impact in the community.”

The new building will also include 60 apartments, of which around 50 will be affordable apartments.

Youth and Family Outreach opened in 1986 when Portland High School was experiencing a spike in teen pregnancy, Babson-Haley said. To this day, the center remains committed to supporting young parents and the majority of its children, who come from low-income, homeless or immigrant families.

Portland's Planning Commission will vote on the project this summer, according to Kevin Craft, the city's deputy director of planning and urban development.

Babson-Haley said the majority of the $24 million project will be funded by state and federal grants, with the rest coming from funds raised by the center itself.

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