South Portland imposes June 30 deadline for 7 hotels to cease shelter operations

SOUTH PORTLAND — Seven hotels that have been sheltering unhoused individuals and families since the COVID-19 pandemic have until June 30 to resume normal licensed operations for traditional overnight guests.

They are among nine hotels in the city that currently house a few hundred homeless people, City Manager Scott Morelli said. South Portland has 17 hotels.

“The city has informed hotels that they can no longer accept new unhoused clientele, and that any existing unhoused clients must have found other housing arrangements by June 30,” Morelli said in a written statement. “The city purposefully chose this longer deadline to allow children in its school system to finish their school year without disruption and to allow for an orderly transition.”

Last summer, city officials imposed a Feb. 28 deadline on the Days Inn and Comfort Inn to stop operating as homeless shelters because they were generating increased calls for police, fire and emergency medical services. In February, they pushed that deadline to April 30 so guests at those hotels would have time to find alternative housing before government funding expired for pandemic-related shelter programs.

The April 30 deadline is still in effect for those hotels, but city officials are working with them to ensure guests have enough time to transition to other accommodations, Morelli said.

That transition has already begun, he said, including some people who moved from the Days Inn to the Homeless Services Center in Portland that opened last month. Other unhoused guests are expected to find permanent housing with assistance from area social service agencies, he said.

“The city will work with hotels and social service agencies in finding permanent housing for those who remain in hotels,” he said.

During the pandemic, the hotels opened their doors to overflow clients from Portland’s homeless shelters, as well as asylum seekers and others served by agencies that assist unhoused people.

The City Council approved zoning regulations in March that expressly allow agencies to open homeless shelters in South Portland. The regulations took effect Monday. No plans for a shelter have been submitted to the city, Morelli said.