Portland City Councilor Kate Sykes sent an email Friday to City Manager Danielle West asking about the city’s homeless shelter.

“Is it possible to temporarily raise the bed limit at the (homeless services center) throughout the winter to accommodate more individuals?” she asked.

Sykes said she felt compelled to look for solutions after two petitions circulated this week urging the city to do more to provide warming spaces for homeless people as temperatures dropped into the single digits.

One petition asks the city to amend its winter warming plan to open a no-barrier shelter anytime temperatures drop below 32 degrees or there’s freezing rain or snow. The current rules set that threshold at 15 degrees or when there’s more than 10 inches of snow.

“People can develop hypothermia in much warmer weather than 15 degrees. This is a matter of life or death,” said Jess Falero, who helped organize the effort and was once homeless.

The petition also asks the city to stop removing tents out of concern that there is a lack of open beds at the city shelter and people have nowhere else to go.

The second petition, organized in part by Zachary Moore, who runs a painting company in South Portland and was formerly homeless, goes even further, asking the city to open a downtown shelter for the entire winter and keep it open 24/7.

He said establishing a permanent warming space could eliminate what to him seems to be a yearly scramble to throw together a warming shelter.

“Why is this same conversation happening every November? We don’t understand in July that this is happening? That it’s going to get cold? Why don’t we get realistic here,” he said.

But Mayor Mark Dion said very few people are actually stepping up to provide these services, even when the city offers millions of dollars in aid. He cited the city’s effort to open a year-round day space for the homeless community, which would tap into $1.38 million in opioid settlements funding, but no one has applied to run it, he said.

“The city runs three shelters with 600 beds and we can barely staff what we have now,” said Dion. “I get super frustrated at people who just assume we’re not doing what we should do; we’re doing everything we can.”

WARMING SHELTER COSTS

Those three shelters don’t include a city-run warming shelter. However, the city does help coordinate a partnership every year between a local nonprofit and the state, which provides funding each winter for an emergency warming shelter in the city.

For the last few years, Greater Portland Peer Services has gotten that contract and run the shelter out of First Parish Unitarian Church on Congress Street. But last year, they nearly ran out of money at the end of February, about a month too early.

When the time came this year to submit proposals for operating the shelter, nobody applied, according to Dion.

Brian Townsend, executive director of Commonspace, a nonprofit that supports the homeless population, said that’s when city officials asked if his organization would take on the job.

Townsend agreed, but said it is no small task. He said there are about 70 to 80 people who consistently use that shelter; nearly all of them are drug users, and many have mental health issues.

To keep the space — and the surrounding area — safe, they need experienced staff who can clean up and make sure nobody is camping on the property on nights when the shelter is closed. All of those challenges played into deciding when, and how often, to open.

The city and Commonspace worked together to agree on the weather threshold that would trigger its opening — trying to balance community needs with limited resources.

But Commonspace can decide to open the shelter at other times, too. Townsend said it has been open seven nights so far this winter, only two of which were compulsory.

Townsend said he would like to see their doors open more often and understands the need for a permanent space, but doesn’t see a way to create one.

“Right now it’s everything we can do just to keep it running at the level that it is,” he said.

CITY COUNCIL RESPONSE

Advocates are also pushing the city to stop removing tents during the winter.

Under a 2022 policy, the city can remove tents with 24 hours’ notice as long as there are beds available at the city shelter. The city said there have consistently been between 10 and 20 beds open each night over the last few months, so they have been removing tents quickly.

But Falero and others said they have called the city shelter looking for beds for clients over the past few weeks and been told there is no space.

“From our experience as advocates, those numbers the city has put out don’t seem true,” said Moore.

City spokesperson Jessica Grondin said the shelter offers beds starting in the morning. Once beds are spoken for, she said, they instruct others to try later in the day. Then, the staff does a check after curfew at 11 p.m. for any remaining beds and at that point, they update the number.

But Moore said beds that open up late at night are effectively unavailable.

“If someone is homeless, they need to know where they’re going to sleep before 11 at night. Practically, a bed that opens up that late isn’t going to get used,” said Moore.

The petitions have reignited Dion’s pleas for the state and other communities to do more to provide services for homeless residents. He said Portland has exhausted its resources.

“I keep calling for the cavalry, but nothing is coming over the hill. I’d like those petition signers to give that some thought and see if they can come up with anything. Maybe they should send that petition to the governor or to other municipalities,” he said.

Still, Sykes is disappointed that, to her, the city appears to be distancing itself from the issue. In an email to councilors Thursday, she said Grondin seemed to absolve the city of responsibility.

“As you know, we don’t operate or fund the emergency warming shelter — that is Commonspace via MaineHousing funds,” Grondin’s email stated.

Other councilors weren’t ready to weigh in on the issue. Councilor Regina Phillips declined to comment, saying she needed more information. And newly elected Councilor Ben Grant said he was hoping to learn more about the city’s winter warming plan.

“The primary responsibility of city government is to keep people safe, so for me, I feel like we share in that responsibility,” said Sykes.

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