PORTLAND, Maine — City officials doubled down on a decision to use a low-security inmate facility at the county correctional center as a temporary homeless shelter this winter.
The shelter, described as a “college-style dorm” by a county commissioner, contains 44 single bedrooms and a kitchen and dayroom areas. It would add 30 beds to a network of other city-run overnight shelters on the peninsula.
Health and Human Services Director Kristen Dow said the city was “concerned about the implications of having our shelter guests close to the Cumberland County jail facility,” but those concerns were abated after seeing the facility, which offered “a number of improvements” for guests.
The facility shares an address with the county jail, but is separated by a road and another building. It would be staffed by social service workers and not corrections officers. A former gym in the jail complex had once been used to shelter people experiencing homelessness long ago but the practice was discontinued in 1987.
Adam Rice, a formerly homeless Portland resident who advocates for people experiencing homelessness, said that he would not support the plan if he “were on the streets right now.”
“Yes, more shelter is needed, and any more resources is good, but that location may well make community members feel unsafe, and potentially trigger feelings of trauma in folks who have felt victimized by police in the past,” Rice said.
Anticipating their use of the Portland Exposition Building would expire, city officials have been looking at vacant properties in Portland for months, Dow said, adding that any potential shelter would need to be retrofitted for use as a shelter.
In August, City Manager Jon Jennings sent a letter requesting use of the Cross Insurance Arena, a public building that was renovated with $33 million in tax dollars in 2011, as an emergency shelter during the winter, which health officials warn will bring increased danger of infection during the coronavirus pandemic.
County commissioners and arena trustees denied the city manager’s request, saying that “the use of the arena brought a host of challenges and that a better option should be explored,” according to a statement from county manager Jim Gailey.
Commissioner Susan Witonis said that the building formerly known as the Cumberland County Civic Center was not “suitable for the homeless because of its size and shape” in a Sept. 14 meeting, adding that she feared its use as a shelter would prompt more renovations.
“Look at what they did to City Hall. Look at the mess over there that they make. Who is prepared to have another situation like that?” Witonis said.
Commissioners floated the use of the corrections center facility in that meeting.
Officials plan to install ice at the arena in November in preparation for the Maine Mariners hockey season. Arena trustees also have an agreement with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Federal Emergency Management Agency for use as a possible alternative care site if needed during the pandemic, according to a letter sent in reply to Jennings’ request.
Preble Street, a nonprofit social service agency, pitched the city in July a plan to renovate its resource center into a 40-bed shelter for the winter at its existing location at 5 Portland St. in Bayside. The planning board is expected to vote on the proposal in the coming weeks.
City officials plan to use the facility to house people experiencing homelessness through April. The shelter would effectively replace a temporary shelter the city has operated at the Expo building, which the city needs to vacate by Sunday to observe a contractual agreement with the Maine Red Claws, a G-league basketball team. The decision is not expected to require a city council vote or public hearing.
City shelter beds have not been filled to capacity over the past several months since the COVID-19 outbreak, officials say, even as the need for more temporary housing grows.
The city capped capacity at its shelters in April to all but 608 individuals and wouldn’t take new residents, as part of a state of emergency that was extended until January by Mayor Kate Snyder on Monday night.
Brian Townsend, executive director of the nonprofit social service agency Amistad, said proximity of the proposed shelter — informally called the Joyce House — to the jail was an “uncomfortable reality” for some, but the venture was a “safe and viable solution to an immediate and pressing challenge,” citing community members who said accessibility, safety and access to meals as positives.
“The fact that guests at the Joyce House will have their own rooms is an incredible advantage and selling point, as is its location on the peninsula and its nearness to needed supports and resources,” Townsend said.