Wabanaki Health to Shut 10-Bed Bangor Detox Unit After $1.2M Funding Gap

Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness is closing its 10-bed Cedar Road Detox Facility in Bangor after a $1.2 million budget shortfall, leaving 25 employees without jobs. The medically supervised withdrawal program costs $3 million a year to run but receives $1 million in state reimbursement, a gap the organization had covered with federal grants and private donations.

Co-CEO Lisa Sockabasin said the center stopped admitting new patients on Friday, Oct. 30, and that current patients can stay until discharged. She expects all beds empty by the end of next week. The facility treated about 500 clients a year for opioid, alcohol and stimulant withdrawal, serving both Indigenous and non-Indigenous clients, including those with MaineCare.

The funding breakdown began in early 2025, when the Trump administration halted a swath of federal grants. Wabanaki said it could not access federal dollars that paid for more than half its operations and had no other resources to offset the loss. Sockabasin said the organization later recovered some federal funding, but the process took time and did not yield enough to sustain operations.

Federal grant applications were delayed until earlier this year, and when they opened, Sockabasin said demand "flooded the system" because many organizations had lost other funding. Compiling one federal grant takes more than 40 hours, she said, and Wabanaki submitted 12 in a single month. The organization received some but not all of those grants.

Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness laid off 25 employees on Friday, a month after cutting 20 other staff positions. Sockabasin said additional closures may follow, including its recovery housing program.

The organization primarily serves four federally recognized tribes across five communities: the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, the Mi'kmaq Nation, the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township, the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point, and the Penobscot Nation. Its services include medication-assisted treatment, case management, a peer-run recovery center, housing support, HIV testing, and home visiting programs for Indigenous children and families.