BANGOR, Maine — Four unhoused individuals were issued trespassing notices Friday and forced to leave Camp Hope homeless encampment located near the Hope House shelter in Bangor.
New notices were posted around the encampment Friday, saying the area would temporarily not be used as a public space for camping.
Bangor city manager Debbie Laurie said the first paper notices stating several people experiencing homelessness who were living in the area would be required to clear the encampment were posted in various locations throughout the site earlier in the week.
The initial notice said people who were not cooperating with case workers, who were not receptive of aid from outreach resources, and who were endangering others would be forced to pack up and leave.
But what the initial notice didn't clarify was which individuals living in the encampment would be removed from the area.
The decision to follow through with the removal also was not voted on by city council.
Only a handful of individuals were told to leave, but many of the unhoused people living in the area said they were confused about why the city stepped in to make demands for some people to clear the area.
Unhoused individuals said that because the city did not clarify who would have to evacuate the encampment, they were worried about where they would land if they had to leave the place that they call home behind.
"There are yards here," Aaron Shaw, who has been experiencing homelessness for about four years, said. "There are families here. There is somebody here that is a mother figure for people."
Shaw said she felt hurt knowing some people in the encampment which she calls home would be asked to leave.
Laurie reiterated the grounds of the removal Friday, saying the partial clearing was a targeted removal.
"You are not engaging in services. You're not engaging in outreach, and you are engaging in behavior that is threatening the well-being of the other individuals up here," Laurie said.
President of Bangor Friends of Affordable Housing Michael Tuller said, for him, Laurie's reasoning for making the decision to clear people from the encampment didn't add up.
"Now the message has turned more that there are dangerous individuals or people manufacturing drugs out here, and those are the ones they want to move on," Tuller said. "So, it's confusing—you know what exactly is going on."
Laurie said homeless people in the community and outreach workers have reported various forms of abuse in the camp, but she said no one will talk to police for fear of retaliation from their alleged abusers or for fear they would be arrested for outstanding warrants.
She said lack of reporting was a barrier that prevented her from involving the police.
Despite Laurie saying that some people in the unhoused community have made verbal reports of abuse, there is no proof of the concerns, and none of the verbal reports have been independently confirmed.
When pressed about the validity of the claims, Laurie said there have not been any police investigations initiated or completed to verify the claims.
Unhoused individual Nicole Cyr, who has been living in the encampment for one year, said no one is endangering anyone, and she hasn't witnessed any foul play.
"Just because they haven't talked to a worker doesn't mean they were endangering anybody," Cyr said. "In my eyes, we've gotten rid of a lot of the trouble."
Laurie doubled down on the alleged abuse claims.
"I have yet to find anybody who will say, 'Yeah, no, that doesn't happen,'" she said with a slight smirk.
But, according to Shaw, the people living in the area are part of a close-knit community. She said, like Cyr, she hasn't personally witnessed or experienced any threats to safety.
"This is a community that protects each other, and it's pretty safe here," Shaw said.
Cyr said she doesn't feel like the city should have stepped in to mitigate any of the alleged claims, saying the homeless community can sort its own problems if there are any present.
"I don't see why the city's trying to step in. We're fighting hard enough to live out here," Cyr said. "You know, we don't enjoy being out here. We don't want to be out here, but there's some of us that have to be out here."
The city gave people less than a week's notice to clear out, and Laurie said she didn't reach out to any nonprofit organizations that work closely with the unhoused or to law enforcement before posting the first notice.
"Should we have taken a step back and put out a notice ahead of time? Yes. I'm not going to say no," Laurie said. "But we didn't. We're here, and we're still committed to ensuring the safety of the individuals who are here."
Tuller said the whole ordeal could have been better communicated. He said that removing people from the community is ultimately ineffective.
"Bottom line, to me, it's extremely logical. If you're homeless, and you're asked to move, you're just going to find another place to be homeless," Tuller said.