PORTLAND, Maine — It was early and about mid-20s on Thursday morning when Maine Department of Transportation crews walked through the state's largest homeless encampment.
Usually, when they do this to another encampment, it is to sweep the camp, forcing people out and throwing away any belongings people can't take with them.
But this time, crews took more time. The process of moving people around the Harborview encampment was a different one because the DOT wanted people to be out of the way of the bridge when snowplows push snow off the bridge throughout the winter.
"I was stressed earlier this morning," Pema Tsering, who has been homeless since he was 18 said.
Tsering's tent was under the bridge, an area the DOT was forcing people to leave for what they called a safety concern.
Tsering was seen packing his tent and belongings, but not knowing where to move his tent because the encampment, with more than 120 tents, was cramped.
It wasn't until a neighboring tent along the fence off Commercial Street told him he could stay in an empty tent, far away from the splash zone of the bridge.
After working to get people out of the way and throwing away people's personal belongings if they couldn't bring them with them, the DOT constructed a fence around the perimeter of the bridge, creating an even more cramped campsite for the people who live in tents there.
"It's been a lot of work, it's going to be a lot of work to move," Courtney Bass, who works with Milestone Recovery, said. "We got people who are cold and hungry and being shuffled once again."
Bass, who works with many chronically homeless people in the city, said the cold weather is making living conditions at the encampment harder to survive in.
"I'm kind of over it, there needs to be a solution," Bass said.
As the DOT continued to push people back into a further cramped camp, the city has said it's working to bring people into newly opened shelter beds at the Homeless Services Center.
The shelter, which is on the outskirts of town, has had more than 150 beds open since the city voted to expand shelter capacity, and more than 100 asylum-seekers moved out of the shelter, into a new shelter designed specifically for asylees.
According to a city spokesperson, 50 to 60 unhoused people have moved into the shelter, and around 100 open beds remain.
One of the barriers keeping people from accessing city-run shelters is that many people have pets, which aren't allowed inside. For some, it's that they are in relationships and don't want to take a single homeless bed while leaving their partner on the streets.
Drugs are also a big issue, and many people who are actively using cannot go into a city-run shelter.
According to reporting from NEWS CENTER Maine and testimony from Preble Street in Augusta, funding for shelters with lower barriers than the city-run shelter is drying up. They estimated some shelters could start closing in 2024.
But for Bass, seeing this move go through on a cold December morning means a plea for understanding.
"We're going into the holiday season, it's time to start having compassion and empathy, a lot of people do talking but no one does the action."