Bangor must house homeless residents if it closes camp, resource providers say

Leaders of Bangor organizations that assist homeless people support the city's plan to close its largest encampment, as long as the city connects the 73 people living there with housing and other resources.

A team of outreach workers wants to find some kind of shelter for everyone living behind the Hope House Health and Living Center based on each person's specific needs,

Debbie Laurie, Bangor's city manager, said.

Some may get permanent supportive housing or transitional housing while others might need to stay in a shelter or warming center temporarily, Laurie said.

"We recognize that each person is unique and what they need and how we're able to best assist folks will be as unique as the individual," Laurie said. "We're going to take a compassionate, measured approach to this and we'll adapt as needed."

Once the encampment closes on Dec. 31, Laurie said the land will be monitored to ensure no one returns, cleaned and the city has heard from multiple parties interested in the property.

Laurie would not say what those interested in the land wish to do with it.

The closure of the sprawling encampment is the latest development for the area, often called "Tent City" or "Camp Hope," that formed during the pandemic as homelessness in Maine worsened. Since then, the site has become the physical representation of the various challenges plaguing the state, including a shortage of affordable housing and ongoing opioid epidemic.

Encampments can be difficult to close, especially when they've been around for years, as is the case for Tent City, Boyd Kronholm, director of the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter, said. Even if cities manage to close a site, smaller encampments usually pop up elsewhere.

Despite the challenges ahead, Kronholm said watching the city successfully close a smaller encampment off Valley Avenue after housing all but one person living there gives him hope that outreach workers can do it again.

Thirty percent of people from the Valley Avenue encampment who were housed returned to living outside six months later.

"Whatever they did at Valley Avenue seems to have worked," Kronholm said. "The city has shown a willingness to show people empathy and go above and beyond to meet their needs."

However, the city had more resources when it closed the Valley Avenue encampment, and Kronholm said he's not certain the city has the same tools now.

The closure will also come at a time when the city's homeless shelters are usually full or nearly so, but several warming centers open during the winter.

If outreach workers can't find permanent housing for everyone by Dec. 31, Kronholm said Bangor Area Homeless Shelter's 38 beds are usually full. Furthermore, some people might not be welcome at the shelter due to past behavioral issues or substance use.

The shelter will open its overflow room that can welcome five more people on Nov. 1. On Dec. 7 the shelter will open its winter warming center that can accommodate 38 more people from 6 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.

The Hope House, which can welcome 56 people, is usually at or near capacity as well, according to Ted Varipatis, spokesperson for Penobscot County Health Care, which owns and operates the shelter. On Wednesday, for example, 53 of the shelter's 56 beds were taken.

Though outreach workers haven't yet found appropriate housing for everyone, the city decided it's time to close the site due to "an alarming increase in illegal activity, particularly related to allegations of violence among encampment residents," Laurie wrote in a four-page memo to councilors.

In recent weeks, Bangor police's special response team has addressed crimes in the encampment that resulted in arrests, drug seizures and weapon confiscations, according to Sgt. Jason McAmbley, spokesperson for the Bangor Police Department.

While documented offenses in the area have spiked, McAmbley said he believes there are even more crimes happening but that encampment residents are afraid to call police due to a distrust or fear of retaliation.

"If you're living there, you're protected by the wall of a tent," McAmbley said. "It must be frightening."

The many resources Bangor has makes it "one of the greatest places to assess whether it is safe for an encampment to be moved," according to Josh D'Alessio, executive director of the Bangor Health Equity Alliance.

Aside from the organizations that offer various aid to people who are homeless, have untreated mental illnesses and are grappling with substance use, the city has its own public health department and a team within the police department that specializes in non-emergency calls.

While moving encampments can disrupt a person's continuity of care, D'Alessio said sometimes encampments must be removed if they've become dangerous for the people living there or hazardous for emergency services to enter.

"I know that I would be removed from my home if I was a danger to my family or neighbors," D'Alessio. "That standard shouldn't be different if you're unsheltered."

However, D'Alessio said a city should not break up an encampment without assisting people there simply because the site is an eyesore or the community doesn't like people congregating in an area.

Though he believes encampments should never form in the first place, D'Alessio said advocating for the camps and spending money on supplies such as tents and blankets detract from "the real story, which is needing more housing."