BIDDEFORD, Maine —
Linneah Lombard adores her cats. In fact, her husband and cats are her only family.
"My adoptive mother left me outside and said I wasn't worth anything," Lombard said.
She has been homeless since she was seven years old, bouncing around encampments across the state. Lombard says those are the only places she's ever felt like she has a community that relates to her.
"I'm worried about all of my people out here, because if we separate too much we'll have nothing."
Now, Lombard's journey is starting again.
City officials rolled in to the Water Street encampment in Biddeford, where Lombard and dozens of others had been staying, with a school bus and flatbed truck filled with unused recycling bins to store residents' belongings.
The city says the bins are an efficient way to safely store people's belongings and also track them with a unique identification number. But this method didn't go over well for some.
"I came with things, I have cats, what are you going to do, make me throw them in that trash can too?" Lombard said.
Mayor Marty Grohman says the long-term goal is to end homelessness in Biddeford, which started with a ban on public camping, effective July 8. That ban began first with clearing Mechanics Park, as it was the city's largest encampment at the time.
"We just do not think it's a dignified existence to be living outside," Grohman said at a press conference following the encampment clearing.
City officials called the clearing a big success and said they will be offering the Seeds of Hope Neighborhood Center as a temporary solution to house those who were forced to leave the encampments. They say the goal is to use the shelter as a first step to moving each displaced person towards stability.
"We're not turning anybody away, we'll figure it out," Vassie Fowler, executive director of Seeds of Hope, said. Fowler said the shelter is as low barrier as they come, and everyone is welcome. However, homeless advocates say that doesn't make it a suitable solution because the building wasn't designed for that purpose.
"It really needs a lot of work to it if you're going to become a shelter. It's not a shelter and everybody knows that, but they're making it out to look like it's a shelter," Tammy Harvison, owner of nonprofit White Butterfly "with a cause," said.
Seeds of Hope is still under construction. NEWS CENTER Maine got to tour the building on Monday afternoon. The bottom floor will fit about 20 people comfortably and the kitchen and second floor are still undergoing renovations. There is one bedroom and gravity chairs instead of real beds.
"The mayor said, 'well, it's not a perfect plan, but it's all we got. No, it's not all we got. You could've done it way better, you know that, and you chose to do it this way," Harvison said, who feels like the city has had enough time to come up with a more suitable solution.
"This isn't something the city just came up with — we've been working on this for years. Although it doesn't answer all the questions, you have to start somewhere, and this is where we start," Fowler said.
However, for Lombard, this isn't a start, but rather a scary end. Lombard says she and her friends won't be going to Seeds of Hope. Instead they will be splitting up and searching for new places to stay. She says she worries about their safety, especially once they are separated.
"There's people that self medicate that aren't going to have anybody to Narcan them immediately. They're not going to have anything. They're just going to sit out there and die," Lombard said.
For those who do choose to go to Seeds of Hope, city leaders say they'll be working to connect them with mental health resources and crisis management, as well as longer-term housing assistance.