AUGUSTA — City officials have agreed to use some of the city’s stash of opioid settlement funds to ensure staff of the Augusta Emergency Overnight Warming Center will be paid while the nonprofit operation awaits grant funding expected in September.

The center, which provides overnight shelter to local people who are homeless during the winter months, is short on cash needed to pay its two year-round workers, and a $750 oil bill. Center officials said they anticipate the center will receive a Maine State Housing Authority grant around Sept. 1, but that leaves a funding gap and no money to keep paying its director and manager until then.

Ward 4 City Councilor Eric Lind, who serves on an advisory board to the warming center that is overseen by the South Parish Congregational Church, proposed earlier this month that the city use $13,450 from funds the city has received in the opioid settlement with pharmaceutical companies, to help the warming center bridge that funding gap.

Augusta currently has about $933,000 in opioid settlement funds in the bank, about $500,000 of which is not yet designated for anything, according to City Manager Jared Mills.

On Thursday, city councilors unanimously approved, without debate, using $13,400 to help the center cover the funding gap.

“I just want to say thank you to the City Council for the support,” Lind said after the 8-0 vote. “By the time I left here last week, when we discussed it, I had five text messages and two or three emails from people that are in the church that are very grateful for this. Thank you, and I think this overnight warming center saves lives.”

Multiple councilors expressed support for the proposal at their July 10 informational meeting, saying it’s an appropriate use of opioid settlement funds because some of the people who use the warming center were and in some cases still are affected by opioid addiction.

Lind said cost overruns, including on building renovations, left the warming center without enough cash on hand to get through until the next round of grant funding.

When the warming center first opened in 2022, the city contributed $124,000 from Augusta’s allotment of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to help create and open the center. The proposal was also awarded a $30,000 grant from the United Way of Kennebec Valley that year.

This year, according to director Julia Stone, the warming center did not ask for any city money. Its $345,000 budget came from fundraising and multiple grants, including two from MaineHousing: one for winter warming shelters for $218,170, and one for long-term solutions for $80,179.