FARMINGTON – Pleas to keep open a group home for pregnant and parenting teenagers were heard Monday. The costs of running Kerr House are high, a director said, and it would take more than $100,000 to keep the home operating just this fiscal year.

Heather Moody, who stood in front of a crowd of 50 at a press conference, broke into tears as she said she was 36-weeks pregnant and had no place to go.

She’s among four pregnant or parenting teenagers who will lose their home when Kerr House closes as soon as possible.

“I just don’t understand how you can let that happen,” Moody said in a trembling voice.

She said she’d contacted Gov. John Baldacci and Wal-Mart to gain support to keep the home open.

Young mothers, community members and staff wanted to know why this happened. Some said the community learned too late about the state of finances at the home.

Last week, the five-member Board of Directors of Positive Turning Points for Youth voted to suspend operations of Kerr House. They said it was due to mounting debt and concerns about its financial viability.

Half of the eight employees have already been laid off.

The agency ended 2003 with a deficit of $61,700, board Chairwoman Janine Winn told the crowd Monday that huddled under umbrellas or stood in the rain at the University of Maine at Farmington where the press conference was held. It would take an additional $50,000 to keep the home going this year, Winn said.

The deficit was primarily because of the low occupancy rate of 67 percent in 2003, as compared with 97 percent in 2002, she said.

The house is funded primarily through the state’s Medicaid program. It pays Kerr House a fixed amount per resident, per day, regardless of the actual expenses.

The operating budget is $330,000 for the home, which opened in 2001.

Most of the expenses at Kerr House are fixed and don’t fluctuate depending on occupancy, Winn said. On average, young mothers were staying 105 days in 2003 compared to 357 days in 2002. The home was set up for five teenagers to stay from a year to two years.

It costs $272 per day per person at the Kerr House, Winn said.

Winn said that as recently as two weeks ago the board had hoped to keep the house open. It has been working on the problem for months, meeting weekly, she said.

Money is owed to local vendors, for heat and electricity, salaries and vacation among other things. Employees have had to wait once for delayed paychecks.

Winn apologized to the young mothers for the closing. If someone comes to the board with a plan to keep it open, Winn said, they’d listen. But for every day it stays open now, it goes deeper in debt.

“We’re not going to put them out on the street,” Winn said after the conference. Staff and board members are working with the families and caseworkers to find homes for the young mothers.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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