It doesn’t take living next to Harbor View Park to understand the dire and heartbreaking situation Portland has faced in the last year with its unhoused population. Other Portland residents, business owners, visitors and those experiencing homelessness are all too familiar with the realities that impact the health and vitality of Maine’s largest city and those connected to it.

In recent weeks, however, we’ve seen a tremendous number of people come inside. That has been a game changer for my neighborhood and for the city overall. Our city’s leadership on the encampment crisis is to be credited. I hope it will lead to lessons learned and permanently adopted strategies for the future.

Two months ago, the City of Portland launched three significant strategies. First, the City Council followed the city manager’s recommendation to expand the capacity of Portland’s Homeless Service Center, allowing 50 new beds to be put into emergency service within the shelter. Second, the city, working with many partners, opened a shelter for single adult asylum seekers; the day it opened, 120 people smoothly moved from the HSC to that new shelter equipped with resources for serving asylum seekers. Third, the city insisted that the new capacity, 170 open beds at the HSC, be prioritized for people unsheltered in encampments.

This trifecta has changed the city for the better. Most people have come inside. Facts from the city back this up.

The HSC has had 350 intakes since November when asylum seekers moved to the new shelter at 166 Riverside.

Tents are a fairly good marker of how many people are outside. Portland had a peak of 282 tents on Oct. 6 last year. It had 38 on Jan. 23. This represents an 86.5% reduction in unsheltered homelessness, almost all of it in the last two months. By outreach worker estimates, Portland has fewer people outside than it did last winter before the encampment crisis arose.

The City of Portland’s Homeless Service Center now has a caseworker on-site providing eligibility determinations two days a week. It is working to have the Department of Motor Vehicles do the same for IDs necessary for securing housing. More service providers are providing direct services at the HSC, exactly as originally designed.

The HSC is now also offering medication-assisted treatment on-site, greatly assisting people with substance use disorders. This new service arrived simultaneous to the focus shift on serving people unsheltered.

The HSC has also lowered numerous barriers, including its curfew, support for people with pets, and support for couples. It also offers a shuttle bus to access all services or employment within the city. The HSC has added an outreach arm to connect with people outside and bring them inside. These professionals join other agency outreach workers but bring added sway by being from the shelter itself. The number of people barred from the shelter due to behavioral issues has dropped sixfold in one year. In December, despite the change in clientele to populations from encampments at the HSC, there were no neighborhood complaints. There were 14 adult single housing placements from December to the first half of January alone.

The leadership and staff of the HSC have worked hard with other stakeholders to welcome people inside and meet the needs of clients.

This is working.

The city manager deserves to be applauded, and so does the City Council for following her lead.

What’s next? We need to support the City of Portland in adopting a permanent policy allowing the HSC to use space internally to meet emerging needs. This will allow for the ebb and flow of homelessness, preventing encampments. This extra capacity has proven successful. People came inside and fared well, many moving to stable housing.

Let’s insist people stay inside by ensuring we have room at our shelter. Let’s not return to the encampments of last summer and fall. We can do better than that and we have just proven exactly how.

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