PORTLAND, Maine — Desiree Rowe has been staying at the Park and Ride parking lot encampment off Marginal Way in Portland for three weeks.
The number of tents continue to rise over the weeks, with two deaths of unhoused people within a six-day span.
"I knew him very well," Rowe said.
Rowe said she knew both people that died, and the man who most recently died Saturday evening in his tent, was a man recently released from jail.
Unhoused people at the Park and Ride called him Robby. He was known as a father figure and a man who gave to others. Unhoused people at the encampment also said Robby was battling cancer.
"It's sad. It is sad to know they feel like there is nothing left," Rowe said.
Robby died alone on Saturday, his friends told NEWS CENTER Maine.
Portland police said they are investigating the death of Robby and the man found dead the previous week at the same encampment as suspected overdoses.
For Shay Dufour, a recovery advocate, and formerly unhoused herself, people often die alone from overdoses as bystanders are afraid of repercussions.
She wants more people to know about the Good Samaritan Law.
Maine’s current “Good Samaritan” law went into effect in 2019. It grants immunity to a person who overdoses at a scene and to the person who calls 911 for help.
"There is a lack of education and awareness," Dufour said. "We need to start saving lives."
Dufour said the state should invest in clean consumption sites, where people who are battling drug addiction can go to use under the supervision of medical staff.
"That could save hundreds of lives with medical staff on board watching people. If they do overdose, they are right there with Narcan," Dufour said.
LD 1364, which is currently awaiting a senate vote in the Maine Legislature, would allow cities and towns to open these clean consumption sites in an easier way.
The bill, sponsored by Portland Rep. Grayson Lookner, was approved narrowly by the House in a bipartisan vote.
"I can say with 100 percent certainty if I was unhoused in Portland or Lewiston, I would be doing whatever I could to take the pain away," Zoe Brokos, the executive director of the Church of Safe Injection, said.
Brokos is also supportive of safe consumption sites and said it's worth the investment seeing how many people are dying on the street.
"The police and the city are moving people from one place to the next without the willingness to do anything different," Brokos said. "We won't know until we try, and we cannot simply continue to follow policy that was created 40 years ago and think it's going to work today."
But while solutions are discussed, the mourning continues for those in the unhoused community.
"He was a really good dude," Allan Hill said.
Hill, who is blind and suffering from an infection, said Robby would care and look out for him.
"I talked to him two hours before I gave him a hug and said I'm going to lay down. Then people came to my tent and said Big Rob died," Hill said.
Hill added that while he wasn't related to Robby, he views him as his uncle.
"A lot of people looked up to him. He just got out of jail two days ago, and everyone was excited to see him and congratulate him. He was in good spirits," Hill said.