PORTLAND, Maine — Editor's note: the attached video was originally posted on Dec. 19, 2023.
The city of Portland announced Thursday afternoon they would postpone the clearing of the homeless encampment under the Casco Bay Bridge until Jan. 2.
This is the second time this month that the city has delayed the sweep.
Originally scheduled for Dec. 19, the clearing of Harbor View Memorial Park and Douglass Street/Dougherty Field encampments was postponed to get more people into available shelter beds, according to city spokesperson Jessica Grondin.
The city rescheduled the sweep for Dec. 28, but due to rain decided to postpone until after the new year, Grondin told NEWS CENTER Maine on Thursday.
The decision to reschedule came short notice to the nonprofits and organizations that showed up early in the morning Thursday, prepared to help people move out of the encampment.
"We take the trouble to come down here to exhaust people and waste their time," Pastor Jeff Logan of Grace Street Ministries said.
Logan said the delay gives people a small reprieve, but knowing it was postponed to the next week, he knows they will be right back.
"It's frustrating for them, it was last Tuesday and now this Thursday," Logan said.
For people living in the encampment, Thursday's false alarm was stressful.
"We were all getting ready, running around to pack, and stressed out," Erica Mathies, who is homeless, said. "If we go to a shelter that means we're going to lose a lot of our stuff."
Mathies is battling a drug addiction and has a dog, which would normally be two barriers keeping her from using the city-run shelter, the Homeless Services Center.
Mathies said once her spot gets swept by the city, she is prepared to temporarily give her dog to a family member while she seeks medically assisted treatment for her drug addiction at the HSC.
According to Jessica Grondin, there were 83 beds available at the HSC on Thursday.
"For right now I will go to the shelter on the last day because I don't want to be stressed like I was today," Mathies said. "Obviously it's something I don't want to do but he doesn't deserve to be outside...it's going to hurt me to let him go for a bit but until I figure out an apartment he shouldn't be outside."
A population of tents grew under the bridge following the removal of an encampment on Marginal Way this past November. These sweeps have continued across Portland, despite local protests.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine (ACLU) has maintained the position that pushing unhoused individuals out of their self-claimed homes is unethical.
“These sweeps are cruel and a waste of taxpayer dollars and a complete policy failure," ACLU of Maine legal fellow Heather Zimmerman said in a press release. "After the city and state conducted repeated sweeps over the past several months, hundreds of people remain left outdoors and forced to survive on the streets. City officials and police have only forced people to move from one place to another while destroying their property and putting them in harm's way.”
Grondin said the city is worried about the public health and safety risks the Casco Bay Bridge encampment poses. Recently, there have been reported tent fires, a fatality due to a tent fire, and an unattended outside death, she said. There have been 12 deaths outside campsites so far in 2023, and calls for service in the Harbor View Memorial Park area have increased with 303 calls—seven resulting in overdoses and one fatality. Last year, there were 59 calls for service in the area and zero overdoses, according to Grondin.
The Maine Department of Transportation has also expressed concern about the people's proximity to the bridge, especially with winter plowing ahead.
Mayor Mark Dion, who was elected nearly two months ago, campaigned on being stricter on homelessness in the city.
"The public needs to understand the decision has been made to clear the camps, the next decision is to marshal the resources," Dion said when asked about the second postponement of the encampment sweep.
City Councilors have differed with Dion, voting 7-2 the other week on a statement of disapproval of further encampment sweeps.
Dion, also a former Sheriff, said the city has done more than enough to lower barriers at the shelter and convince people to go.
"I think staff has done all they can to make the doors as wide open as possible for someone to come in," Dion said. "I'm not prepared to watch people die from exposure this winter."
Dion said the city ordinance, which states if there is open bed space at the shelter then camping is illegal, needs to be enforced. He said this will be enforced until the HSC fills the dozens of beds it currently has open.
When asked if the approach of enforcing encampment sweeps, which has been criticized by nonprofit providers and city councilors, is uncaring to unhoused people, Dion said the risk is too high for people living in encampments.
"I think leaving them in existence is uncaring because what you are agreeing to is a slow-motion suicide," Dion said. "The city can't say it cares about people if it allows those encampments to exist."
The ACLU of Maine explained in a Thursday press release why some unhoused individuals choose not to go to the shelter.
"People may be unable to access the HSC for a variety of reasons: because they need disability accommodations; because of their gender identity; because they need the assistance of a service animal; or because the shelter’s strict hours prevent them from getting to and from work shifts, among other barriers," according to the release.
In the past, unhoused individuals told the city they wouldn't go to these shelters because of curfews, and the inability to bring pets or go with their partners. In response, the HSC has made some changes to ease their hesitation, according to Grondin.
The HSC staff has extended the curfew to 11 p.m., secured vans and established regular pick-up times to help relocate individuals to the shelter, and improved education efforts regarding storage resources and capacity.
City manager Danielle West said sweeping the encampment goes beyond public safety, and feels it would be immoral to leave so many out in the cold this winter.
"In the past, encampment resolutions occurred because obstructions and the public health and safety issues required dispersion. Now, as we head into winter, we have an even greater public health and safety crisis to address, but we also actually have the shelter capacity to accommodate individuals who have no place else to go. Leaving them outdoors is simply unconscionable," West said in a news release.
Grondin said, weather permitting, the city would sweep the Harbor View Memorial Park and Douglass Street/Dougherty Field encampments on Jan. 2.