Lauren Dembski-Martin, the social providers navigator for the Scarborough Police Division, has utilized for a $10,000 grant to review the wants of the homeless neighborhood on the town so officers could make a plan that may assist them extra successfully. She mentioned present assets are at capability or pointless, and “we will’t maintain referring folks to assets which can be maxed out.” Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Workers Photographer
Lauren Dembski-Martin counted about 50 homeless people dwelling in Scarborough final yr.
Because the social providers navigator on the Scarborough Police Division, she discovered folks panhandling at busy intersections, tenting in wooded encampments or dwelling out of their vehicles in retailer parking tons.
Some have been locals who had been displaced from their houses. Others have been simply passing by means of.
“The pandemic highlighted the homelessness that’s all the time been right here,” Dembski-Martin mentioned. “It’s been camouflaged in Scarborough for a very long time, nevertheless it’s not anymore.”
Scarborough is certainly one of a number of communities, together with South Portland and Westbrook, the place persons are taking motion to deal with the homelessness disaster in Higher Portland. It’s a problem that has lengthy been left to Portland as Maine’s largest municipality, which is sheltering about 950 unhoused folks nightly with extra staying outside. The town is ready to open a $25 million, 208-bed homeless providers heart this spring to switch town’s getting old and cramped Oxford Road Shelter.
However whereas many say homelessness is a broader regional and statewide challenge that must be tackled on the State Home, some are attempting to do what they will regionally.
In Scarborough, Dembski-Martin has utilized for a $10,000 Cumberland County Group Growth Block Grant to review the wants of homeless folks in Scarborough so the city can develop a plan to assist them extra successfully.
“The homeless inhabitants in Scarborough is ever-changing and fluid,” she mentioned. “Present assets are at capability or now not obligatory. We are able to’t maintain referring folks to assets which can be maxed out.”
What providers Scarborough would possibly present and whether or not that may embody an emergency shelter stays to be seen, she mentioned.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, as many as 80 folks have been housed on the Consolation Inn & Suites on Route 1 in Scarborough. Below an settlement with city officers, the 69-room resort is within the closing phases of evicting company in fewer than 20 rooms, lots of whom beforehand obtained federal emergency rental help that ran out final fall. The resort is reserving conventional in a single day company beginning March 1.
MaineHousing final month provided $21 million in grants to supply in a single day warming shelters this winter, maintain folks in lodges by means of April and fund different long-term homeless shelter options throughout the state. The Mills administration, with bipartisan assist within the Legislature, additionally delivered $22 million for a spread of emergency housing wants in 2022, mentioned spokesman Tony Ronzio.
“Each particular person in Maine ought to have the chance to have a heat, protected and safe place to name dwelling,” Ronzio mentioned in an announcement. “We’re persevering with to work carefully with native communities, regional organizations, and statewide companions to search for each answer doable to deal with this vital challenge going through Maine’s folks, financial system and workforce.”
Westbrook Mayor Mike Foley mentioned the MaineHousing grants are too little, too late, and the Feb. 24 deadline to use for long-term shelter options is just too tight for anybody who doesn’t have a proposal already within the works.
Westbrook doesn’t have the means to develop, employees and function an emergency shelter by itself, he mentioned, and zoning doesn’t enable one other entity to open a shelter within the metropolis.
Homelessness is “one thing that everybody’s involved about, nevertheless it’s not one thing that Westbrook can tackle by itself,” Foley mentioned. “It must be a regional effort and the mandate and the funding wants to return from the state.”
Liz McLellan is co-chair of the newly shaped Westbrook Group Housing Coalition, a gaggle working to deal with homelessness and lack of reasonably priced housing. The coalition’s early efforts embody offering assets to folks dwelling outside this winter and creating a community of residents keen to supply emergency shelter of their houses. “This can be a huge mountain, nevertheless it’s not simply ours to climb,” McLellan mentioned. Ben McCanna/Workers Photographer
Nonetheless, a gaggle of residents has shaped the Westbrook Group Housing Coalition to deal with homelessness and the shortage of reasonably priced housing. It contains leaders of native church buildings, colleges, social service companies and immigrant teams.
“There are issues we will do on the native degree,” mentioned Liz McLellan, who co-chairs the group with Metropolis Councilor Jennifer Munro. “It simply takes a unique mind-set and a unique strategy.”
Though Westbrook has 1,600 housing models within the pipeline – together with reasonably priced, workforce and senior housing – the coalition shaped in December out of concern for lots of of residents who would possibly develop into homeless as federal emergency rental help ran out. In addition they apprehensive concerning the affect on asylum seekers dwelling in space lodges and 50 to 70 homeless college students attending Westbrook colleges, Munro mentioned.
The coalition’s early efforts embody offering assets to homeless folks dwelling outside this winter; creating a community of residents keen to supply emergency shelter of their houses; advocating for homeless and housing initiatives on the state degree; and welcoming legislators to an area housing discussion board.
They’re harnessing vitality to result in actual change, McLellan mentioned, whereas being life like about what volunteers can truly accomplish.
“We’re not capable of resolve this on our personal,” she mentioned. “I don’t need folks to get so annoyed they offer up. This can be a huge mountain, nevertheless it’s not simply ours to climb.”
They’re additionally speaking about searching for zoning modifications to advertise workforce housing growth and permit accent dwelling models, or ADUs.
South Portland just lately modified its zoning to permit ADUs and is on observe to approve a lease management proposal this month. Subsequent on the Metropolis Council’s agenda are proposed zoning and licensing rules that may make it doable for nonprofit companies to open homeless shelters in that metropolis.
South Portland turned the epicenter of Maine’s homelessness disaster through the pandemic, when a number of lodges turned overflow emergency shelters for the Oxford Road Shelter. On the similar time, some giant condo complexes imposed big lease hikes in a runaway actual property market, threatening to make extra folks homeless.
“This neighborhood has reached a degree the place many agree we have to do one thing,” mentioned Josh Reny, assistant metropolis supervisor. “There are such a lot of wants on the market, we’re attempting to string the needle so the rules enable for flexibility and scalability.”
Over 800 homeless folks stay in South Portland lodges, mentioned Shara Dee, metropolis spokesperson. They embody asylum seekers, households and people with substance use and psychological well being challenges — and a few are amongst these being sheltered by town of Portland. The South Portland Metropolis Council agreed Tuesday night time to permit lodges to proceed these emergency operations till April 30.
Councilors have expressed a need to maintain shelters small – presumably 50 or fewer beds or company per facility, just like Portland’s 40-bed Elena’s Approach wellness shelter that Preble Road opened in October.
Councilors are also contemplating whether or not all shelters ought to present communal gathering house, personal sleeping areas and entry to safe cupboard space and social providers, Reny mentioned. They usually’re weighing the best way to restrict the variety of emergency shelters within the metropolis, presumably by capping the variety of beds total.
Particulars about the place shelters could be allowed in South Portland and the way they’d be licensed have to be labored out earlier than the proposals are offered to the council on Feb. 21.
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