The Sanctuary Inn, located in downtown Ellsworth, bills itself as a place for recovering drug addicts, people experiencing homelessness, and recently released convicts to obtain shelter as they seek to get their lives back in order.
But residents of the town say the neighborhood has become dangerous since the unlicensed, taxpayer-funded flop-house started operating.
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“Staff have been looking into it to figure out what exactly the operation is,” said City Manager Matthew Williams said. “It started originally as a boarding home, and it has kind of transitioned into something else over the time it’s been there.”
The inn’s presence has become a cause of growing concern for neighbors, who appeared at a city council meeting last week to voice their grievances.
Neighbors claimed that they had seen suspicious activity surrounding the property, reporting marijuana smoke, trash around the building, and people entering and leaving at all hours of the night.
The inn, which serves recently-incarcerated and homeless people, is situated only a half mile away from the Ellsworth Elementary/Middle School.
One woman, Missy Shae, told the city council that she has started sleeping with a gun under her pillow since the Sanctuary Inn began operations.
The Sanctuary Inn, at 33 Birch Ave, was previously owned by Barbara Burza, who operated the property as a reputable bed-and-breakfast, known as the Sanctuary Inn and Art Gallery, which was sold in 2023.
It was purchased for $1,175,000 by the Sanctuary Inn Investors LLC, a business based out of an apartment building in Newton, Massachusetts, and managed by Ladvdim Toci and Muharrem Plloci, according to corporate filings.
Plloci, who owns the company’s apartment building in Massachusetts, is an immigrant from Albania, according to his social media profile.
Although no record other than the business records for the Sanctuary Inn exists of anyone at all with the first name Ladvdim, there are records of a Lavdim Toci.
Toci’s LinkedIn profile reveals that, before becoming involved with the Sanctuary Inn, he was a member of the Albanian military.
His sparse profile does not include any employment history, but does come with a puzzling quote.
“Sir I am LTC lavdim toci now in reserve, from Albania. I deplyed with Colonel Arcocha in Iraq (MNSTCI). I am trying to conntact him but is useless. Please do you have his cell phone number. Thank you Sir,” says Toci.
The current property manager Armelindo Shahha told the local newspaper, The Ellsworth American, that, although he was sympathetic to the plight of his neighbors, he disagreed with some of their claims.
“I do feel for them, and I do hear them,” said Shahha, “I’m just trying to house people in need.”
Shahha responded to the neighbors’ concerns, citing the Inn’s rules, which forbid smoking and drinking on the premises.
He claimed that tenants who violate those rules are evicted.
Since the Sanctuary Inn opened last summer, police have been called to the location 18 times, with the majority of those incidents taking place in 2024.
One 911 call came from Shahha himself, who called police after one resident, with an extensive history of mental illness, demanded that they engage in a fight.
On that occasion, police did not need to respond, as Shahha dealt with the situation himself.
In February, police responded to reports of a tenant “acting strange and yelling.”
Police were needed to de-escalate the situation, and transported the man to a hospital for mental help.
In the same month, police were instructed to assist the court by preforming a bail check on a resident of the inn, but they were unable to find the resident in question.
Police were called multiple times with reports of threatening or assault, but none of those cases resulted in arrests, either because police received conflicting reports or the parties did not want to file charges.
In November, police needed to be present as the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) removed an infant from its mother in the inn following a court order.
The high number of police responses is not the only way the inn is expending taxpayer funding.
In fact, taxpayers are picking up the tab for the majority of the residents under the General Assistance welfare program.
Shahha revealed that the majority of his tenants are able to stay in the Sanctuary Inn for the first three months because their bills are paid by the Ellsworth General Assistance program.
The general assistance program is a welfare program which gives financial aid to people who claim they are unable to provide for their basic needs, including housing.
Because each municipality manages its own general assistance program, the same taxpayers who say their neighborhood has been made unsafe because of the Sanctuary Inn are also funding the business.
Some of the tenants are recovering drug addicts referred to the inn by Healthy Acadia, a health non-profit.
The organization receives $3.4 million in taxpayer funding every year, and its Executive director, former Democrat state Rep. Elspeth Flemings, earns over $120,000 every year.
Despite receiving municipal funding through the general assistance program, and being sent recovering drug addicts by Healthy Acadia, the Sanctuary Inn has been operating without the proper licenses.
When City Clerk Toni Deyer was made aware by concerned neighbors that the inn was unlicensed, she contacted Shahha, who claimed that he was unaware that any license was required.
He has since submitted a license application, and has not faced any consequences for failing to acquire a license earlier.
Did the new owners bring the squalor and the drug users from Massachusetts themselves, or do they use Catholic Charities to assist with the IMPORTS? Nice bit of cashing in on the tax funding for deadbeats racket.
“Toci’s LinkedIn profile reveals that, before becoming involved with the Sanctuary Inn, he was a member of the Albanian military.“ Don’t worry, folks. Move along, nothing to see here. There is absolutely no connection to the Albanian mafia.
There are a lot of people operating non profits that are most likely not legit and/ or only for the money.
LePage tried to reign in non profits but was not successful.
It’s too easy to establish and get rich off of non profits.
Organizations like Catholic Charities break the law by bringing in illegals but they are only growing and getting richer, for example.
Growing up in Maine I didn’t know anyone who even knew there was a place called Albania let alone have met someone from there. The slide into a third world shit hole continues. I am a Catholic and I haven’t given one red cent to Catholic Charities for years because of their obscene assistance in bringing illegal aliens here. One problem is they get most of their money from the gov’t. There is an annual collection at Mass for CC. The last time it occurred I watched to see how many put $ in the collection basket very few did. It’s your tax $ that are supporting this travesty mostly.
operating without the proper licenses.– what is matter with Town and State. Is there no concern for the every day people of this Ste Governor Blind?
ME Infidel Is Sorais from that country?
Catholic Charities is a good reasion for church reform
In 2010, Catholic Charities had revenues of $4.7 billion, $2.9 billion of which came from the US government. About $140 million came from donations from diocesan churches, the remainder coming from in-kind contributions, investments, program fees, and community donations.[18]
This from Wikipedia. It’s a bit old but gives an idea about where CC gets there money from. Over half comes from the gov’t. A very small amount comes from the annual parish collection. Most of my Catholic friends don’t give to CC for the same reasons I don’t.
I grew up in Ellsworth. Back then it was a beautiful little city where everyone knew everyone else. I am sorry to see it has to deal with trash like this in a place run by “furriners” who may not even have the right to be in this country. What a disgusting mess in my hometown!
I understand that Rumford, Maine has a similar problem with Hotel Harris. It is on the national registry of historic buildings but has been turned into a flop house where the city sends all the voucher recipients and felons on parole. I have a friend that works at the bank and she told me that a street sign got knocked over by a vehicle but then some toothless hag came along and picked it up and attacked Hotel Harris with it. Yes, she attacked the hotel with the two hour parking from 8-5 sign. 🤣
They paid 1.1million dollars for this property? And they house people who the city pays for? And the city was paying them along with the state and no one new they were unlicensed? No inspections etc? Sorry something is not right here, just saying.
Oh, you’re all scared of Albanian folks
I’ll send a few emails this very night
Just about every business on 1A/3 area would be run way better if Albanians were in charge, to say nothing of home construction in the area – the mess these pudgey mainers are making in many cases is done so badly and so ineptly the structures should be dismantled and the materials repurposed. If you think I’m joking go look in the home depot – not only is there not one trued board or panel in the place, the doofuses buying them take them right from the contractor desk to the work site and begin fastening them together immediately. Chinese folks would just shrug and say when in rome build like a roman whose brain is poisoned with lead, but Albanians would freak out about it, and likely believe that the mainers were all satanists, because not using trued wood is essentially anti-society, as is the maine man’s love of incest. Any clear-thinking person would see the value of an Albanian mafia controlling Ellsworth and surrounding locales, especially ones that abut the Ocean; using boards and panels that haven’t been trued before installation on a seacoast structure is not only satanic but insane. The Albanian mafia will have no choice but to enlist many many Chinese as physicians, even if they aren’t, because they will have to seek out and sterilize the multitudes of drug-addled and incest-fixated white men who are destroying society on a daily basis. Of course, prior to that the Albanian mafia will have to take emergency control of many seats and offices to adjust policies and legislation so that firearms are taken out of the hands of the satanists . . .
. . . what’s the matter? Not having a good time reading comments? Be sure to pat yourselves on the back for maintaining a shit attitude toward people. If you had only behaved correctly like the people living in the other forty-nine States, I would have no reason to do this to you.