PORTLAND, Maine — Workers with the City of Portland and Maine Department of Transportation cleared the state's largest homeless encampment Wednesday, as part of a scheduled removal that took weeks of planning. Still, advocates and unhoused community members said resources for those dealing with drug addiction are preventing them from accessing shelter.
As the crews worked to toss out tents and furniture, it was a familiar sight, as the agencies have swept four large encampments this year alone.
One person who has now been kicked out of two is 24-year-old Erica Mathias. She battles a drug addiction.
"It's hard being outside. It's getting cold, and I was freezing last night," Mathias said.
Temps averaged around freezing early Wednesday morning.
As Mathias was working with her boyfriend to pack up their belongings and move to the already crowded Harborview encampment along the south end of Commercial Street, she told NEWS CENTER Maine she won't accept city shelter because they won't let her bring her dog.
"I've tried to go numerous times, but they push me away because of my dog," Mathias said.
With Mathias was her mom, Victoria. Victoria said she was there to help her move, hoping Mathias would decide to come to her home in Standish instead.
"It's heartbreaking, very heartbreaking," Victoria Dipiteriantino said. "I love her so much. I just want her to come home and get her life together."
Victoria said her daughter is dealing with a heroin addiction and wants to be closer to the source of the drugs by staying in the unhoused community.
"I want what every mother wants: for her child to come home," Victoria said.
As the family debated where Mathias goes, family friends loaded the truck and ended up bringing Mathias and her boyfriend to the encampment under the Casco Bay Bridge.
Jess Grondin, a city spokesperson, said the city offered shelter beds to providers 112 times over the last two months. Out of each offer, only 16 were accepted.
"It's not a long-term permanent solution, and we need to get people into housing," Grondin said.
After the city cleared the Fore River Parkway encampment at the end of summer, the city said it would be working to lift some of the barriers to get into city shelter.
"Increased communication, increasing the part that staff are doing outreach," Grondin said, who called the city-run shelter a low-barrier shelter.
But advocates and nonprofits such as Preble Street said more needs to be done to allow people into shelter who are battling drug addiction.
"These are human beings who are struggling with life struggles who are unsheltered," Terence Miller, Preble Street's Advocacy Director, said. "There is an issue about how beds are allocated, limited transportation back to the city and other barriers surrounding that shelter."
Miller said Preble Street asked the city to postpone the encampment clearing until the new asylum seeker shelter opens in the Riverside neighborhood in Portland later in November. Grondin said the city had to stick firm to the November 1 deadline.
The city said it will work to come up with a date on clearing the Harborview encampment under the Casco Bay Bridge in mid-November and directed its resources there.