Tedford Housing opens new, expanded emergency shelter in Brunswick

More than 100 people turned out in Brunswick Thursday to open a new emergency shelter for adults and families in the midcoast region.

The new shelter, run by the non-profit service provider Tedford Housing, can accommodate 24 adults and 10 families at a time. It combines two of Tedford's existing shelters into one building and will increase existing capacity by about 60%.

The new shelter is a small step toward meeting higher demand for emergency housing services in the community, Tedford officials said. Last year, the non-profit was forced to turn away more than 350 adults and 170 families alone.

"It does not need to be this way. We can do better," Tedford Housing Executive Director Andrew Lardie said at Thursday's ribbon-cutting ceremony, in which students from Brunswick High School at