Kari Bradstreet
The Last Stop Is Just the Beginning
Director of Homeless Services of Aroostook. Presque Isle Maine
The Work That Found Kari
Kari Bradstreet is the kind of person who will tell you exactly what she thinks, and mean it warmly. After thirteen years of social work in Aroostook County; first at a domestic violence resource center, now as the director of Homeless Services of Aroostook, she has stopped softening the hardest parts of the job and started speaking about them plainly. Not because she has grown cynical. The opposite. She speaks plainly because she believes the work is worth being honest about.
She is also, by her own account, someone who did not plan to be here. Social work, yes. Homelessness specifically, no. “It found me,” she says. “And then I realized it was a passion.” That is the thing about Kari: she does not perform conviction. She just has it.
Most organizations that serve people in crisis are defined by what they lack; funding, staff, space, time. Homeless Services of Aroostook, operating out of a building on Central Street in Presque Isle, has all of those constraints, and has been working within them, quietly and effectively, for more than forty years. There is a kind of clarity in that building that is hard to find in most workplaces; a daily confrontation with what people actually need, and what it takes to get it to them.
There is a moment Kari comes back to when she talks about why this work matters. Someone hits barrier after barrier in the housing system, in the benefits office, in the phone queue that puts you on hold for forty-five minutes and then disconnects; and at a certain point, they stop trying. Not because they do not want a different life, but because the weight of trying without result becomes its own kind of crushing thing. “When you hit barrier after barrier,” she says, “you just give up.”
Kari has spent more than a decade making sure that stopping point is not the end of the story.
A Mission Built in 1984 Still Going Strong
Homeless Services Aroostook
Homeless Services of Aroostook has been part of this community for more than forty years. It began in 1984, when Sister Mary O’Donnell opened the doors as a shelter for women and children. The organization is still in that same building today, which feels important. There is a sense of continuity in that, a reminder that the work has always been rooted right here.
Over time, the mission grew along with the need. What started as a shelter for women and children expanded to include families. Then, in 2019, HSA added something new. The Aroostook Bridge program opened on the lower floor, creating a lower-barrier option for people who might not fit the structure of a traditional shelter. Now the two programs operate side by side in the same building. Upstairs is the Sister Mary O’Donnell program. Downstairs is the Bridge, each one meeting people where they are.
“We just separated levels,” Kari explains. “The upstairs kept our namesake of Sister Mary O’Donnell. The lower floor is the Bridge, to bridge individuals.”
It is a simple idea, but it speaks to how Kari approaches the work. There is no single path that fits everyone. What matters is having options, and making sure people can find their footing in a way that makes sense for them.
More Than a Bed for Those in Need
The tagline Homeless Services of Aroostook uses is simple: We’re more than a bed. Kari means that.
Shelter is just the starting point. The work really begins after someone walks through the door. HSA helps connect residents with job opportunities, mental health care, substance use support, and primary care. Just as important, they try to bring those services in, instead of expecting people to find their way through a complicated system on their own. “When someone asks for help, they want it then,” Kari says. “They don’t want to wait two weeks or six months.”
That sense of urgency shapes how they do things. HSA works closely with a wide network of partners so that when someone reaches out, the help doesn’t stall after the first conversation. They collaborate with organizations like Community Care Youth Services, Pines Health Services, Northern Light Health, Tempo Employment, the Hope and Justice Project, the City of Presque Isle, and the Presque Isle Police Department. Additional connections, including Better Life Partners and Healthy Minds Counseling, help extend support into recovery and behavioral health.
The goal is not just to get someone through the night. It is to help them build something stable. “Our mission is to help people thrive. To help them become self-sufficient,” Kari says. “And it hits me in my heart.”
She is not speaking in general terms. One of her employees first came to the shelter as a resident, struggling with addiction. At the beginning, he turned down the usual resources and instead tried to explain what he needed. Staff listened. They worked with him at his pace, supported his recovery, and offered him seasonal work at the warming shelter. Over time, that turned into a full-time job. He moved from addiction into recovery, from homelessness into stable housing, and from unemployment into steady work. He is still there.
“I’m super proud of him,” Kari says.
This is what it can look like when things come together. Not all at once, and not perfectly, but in a way that gives someone a real chance to move forward.
What Homelessness in The County Actually Looks Like
One of Kari’s biggest challenges isn’t funding or logistics; it’s helping people understand what homelessness really looks like. The stigma in Aroostook County is real, and it can get in the way of the work.
“There are still some people who think homelessness is just the societal rejects,” she says, not with frustration but with the calm of someone who has explained it many times. “But there are so many other reasons people end up here. We’ve sheltered people who lost their home in a fire. People who lived with family members who passed away and suddenly had nowhere to go.”
She doesn’t pretend that every story is simple. Some residents are struggling with addiction or mental health challenges. Some have made choices that led them here. And some, as she puts it, have found a lifestyle they’re comfortable with and aren’t ready to change. HSA is still there for all of them. “We are a plethora of resources, and if they want those resources, we will connect them,” she says.
What Kari pushes back against is the habit of reducing people to the most visible or challenging examples. “When you hit barrier after barrier, you just give up,” she says. “There are so many people that everybody else has already given up on.”
The geography of Aroostook County adds another layer of difficulty. It’s the largest county east of the Mississippi, roughly the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined, but its population is smaller than the city of Portland. Connecting people to services across that distance, especially in a northern Maine winter, takes creativity and coordination.
Kari and her team provide both, quietly and consistently, making sure that help reaches the people who need it most.
The Community That Shows Up and Supports
When Homeless Services of Aroostook has faced its hardest stretches, and this work is not without them, the community has stepped in. At times, that has meant the difference between staying open and closing the doors. That pattern, repeated over more than forty years, says something enduring about Aroostook County: a quiet but unmistakable commitment to taking care of its own. It is not something Kari Bradstreet takes for granted. It is something she points to with pride.
Support shows up in ways both steady and unexpected. Several local churches, including Grant Memorial United Methodist, Gray Memorial United Methodist, and Lidstone Church, organize ongoing meal trains for both the main shelter and the warming shelter. Dave Adams and his company DASCO have been consistent partners, providing meals and stepping in when HSA’s vehicle broke down. Crown of Maine Wrestling has hosted fundraising events that bring in people who might not otherwise see themselves connected to this work, expanding not just resources but awareness. Every one of those efforts matters. None of them go unnoticed.
At the same time, the reality underneath the work is stark. The state allocates roughly seven dollars per bed, per night. The actual cost is closer to one hundred. That gap does not close on goodwill alone, even in a place as generous as this one. It is bridged through constant effort, including fundraising, partnerships, and advocacy at the state level, such as recent work on LD 2124, a bill aimed at creating more stable, predictable funding for shelters across Maine.
And still, Kari comes back to the same point.
“Our community is amazing,” she says. “They are awesome. They step up. They help us.”
It is not said lightly. It is said with the understanding that, without that shared sense of responsibility, without neighbors who choose again and again to show up, the work would not be possible. And with it, there is something more than survival. There is pride. There is continuity. There is, even in the face of hard realities, a reason to keep going.
Where Homeless Services of Aroostook is Headed
Kari’s vision for the next few years is specific and ambitious. She wants to expand HSA’s reach beyond central Aroostook so that people in the southern and northern parts of the county don’t have to uproot their existing support networks to access help. She wants a new building; or ideally, a campus where different programs operate in separate wings, allowing the shelter to serve people with different needs without putting them in environments that could interfere with their recovery or stability.
“If someone is suffering from mental health challenges, they could be on that wing,” she explains. “Someone who’s in recovery has a wing for recovery. So that people who are still struggling don’t inadvertently traumatize the ones who are doing the work to get better.”
It’s a trauma-informed model, and it reflects the same logic as everything else HSA does: meet people where they are, reduce the barriers, build toward something sustainable.
“Homelessness evolves,” she says, “and we’re evolving too.”
How You Can Help Support Aroostook County Homeless
If you want to support Homeless Services of Aroostook, there are several ways to get involved:
Donate: Financial contributions directly support services for residents. Donations can be made through HSA directly: contact them for current giving options or via stripe.
Volunteer: Community volunteers play an active role in the warming shelter and meal programs.
Advocate: HSA is actively involved in state-level policy work. Staying informed and engaged on legislation like LD 2124 matters.
Spread the word: The more people understand what homelessness actually looks like in Aroostook County and who’s doing the work, the easier it becomes to build sustainable support.
For anyone in crisis or seeking services, HSA is a first call worth making. They’ll connect you with the right resources, and they won’t make you feel like you have to have everything figured out before you ask.
Homeless Services of Aroostook can be reached directly in Presque Isle. If you’re looking to connect with additional resources in the region, organizations like ACAP, Tedford Housing, Homeworthy, Preble Street, HOME, and ShelterMe are part of a broader statewide network working on these issues.
Aroostook County is a Community Worth Knowing
The Northeastland Hotel is proud to be part of Presque Isle, and part of what makes this place worth visiting and worth coming back to. The depth of people like Kari Bradstreet and our other great community leaders and members is what makes the County what is is.
When guests ask us what makes The County different, this is part of the answer. It’s not just the trails and the snow and the quiet. It’s the people who show up for each other, year after year, in ways that don’t always make headlines.
We’ll keep introducing you to them.
Explore more community spotlights to stay connected with what’s happening in Presque Isle.
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