Tuesday’s letter supporting Preble Street’s proposed 40-bed wellness shelter quotes a Sept. 14 news article stating that “the project calls for knocking down most interior walls of the second floor to create an open concept design where shelter staff would be on hand around the clock for a limited roster of approved clients.”

All those years of live, outdoor, free advertising have finally paid off for Preble Street. They want to convert space that could have been a shelter all along into a homey 40-bed spread. I think they are going to have the pillows and sheets monogrammed since they have already picked their residents from the cream-of-the-crop, clean and well-behaved nonviolent members of the city’s homeless population and leave the others for the Oxford Street Shelter. Now there’s a collaborative approach!

Other shelters do intake on a first-come basis. Of course Preble Street has its own social workers and support staff right there. And Preble Street gets to be paid for everything – shelter, food, social services – without any of the travel time. How convenient.

The media played along – bumping up the homelessness issue to front-page status at times. And the Maine People’s Housing Coalition began protests right after it became obvious that Preble Street was losing its client base to Portland’s Riverside arena.. Was that unbelievable timing?

In November, an average of 401 people were in shelters nightly and another 282 in hotels. And 104 individuals were blocked from shelter because of criminal trespass orders. Don’t CTO clients freeze just like everyone else? How is a 40-bed private luxury shelter going to help any of the unhoused population? Just remember: Homeless lives matter, too.

Kenneth Capron
Portland

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