The city of Portland is feeling the pressure as staffing shortages, the COVID-19 pandemic and record numbers of people needing emergency shelter continue to take a toll, the mayor said Monday in her annual State of the City address.

“The state of the city is many things right now,” Mayor Kate Snyder said. “We are in transition … We are feeling the same workforce shortages known throughout our economy. The city is stressed. But we have a track record of progress – that good work has persisted – and there are many reasons to be positive.”

Portland is facing critical staffing shortages with 183 vacancies across departments and six department head positions that are either interim or acting. The city has around 20 department heads and employs 1,300 to 1,400 people, though that includes a few hundred part-time and seasonal employees. The City Council voted Monday to appoint a new human resources director, filling one department head position, though she won’t start for 10 days.

“Every day we read about businesses and organizations struggling against workforce shortages, supply shortages and pressure to increase wages in order to try and keep up,” Snyder said. “As noted, the City of Portland is not at all immune to this reality.”

Snyder delivered her speech remotely because of the pandemic. She spoke on a number of the issues she and the City Council have focused on over the last year, including housing and homelessness, the budget, equity and education.

The staffing shortages, she said, have made it hard to implement new initiatives or fully respond to challenges such as increasing homelessness. In the last year, the city saw record numbers of people needing shelter, Snyder said, and the Department of Health and Human Services is working to provide services for nearly 950 people each night on average. Some of that is being driven by a large number of people coming to Portland and seeking asylum.

While the city is in need of more space for unhoused people to come inside during the day, and Snyder made a point of asking anyone listening who might have such space to offer it up, it is also making progress toward a new emergency shelter that will offer wraparound services and recently received $3 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds from Cumberland County to contribute to the cost of the new shelter.

“It is just this kind of regional collaboration and partnership that we seek and look to expand as we address the sheltering and housing challenges we face,” Snyder said.

In 2021, the Planning Board approved 909 new units of housing, which includes 845 rental units. While Snyder pointed out that the city is not a property developer or manager, she said it does have the capacity to facilitate resources and programs to encourage and promote housing development.

She highlighted two co-op or limited equity housing projects in the works, which follow a model in which part of the equity is owned by individual residents and part by the cooperative jointly as a community. In addition, the city will soon see a community land trust model for housing on Randall Street, with 13 to 16 units of housing. In a community land trust the trust owns the land while the homes built are individually purchased, thus removing the cost of the land from the purchase price and helping keep the properties affordable.

Snyder said the current city budget is stable, with the largest challenge stemming from the high numbers of people being sheltered by the city on an ongoing basis. There are savings due to staff vacancies, she noted, but some of those savings are being offset by overtime for remaining staff doing extra duty.

“It is still too early in the fiscal year to make judgements on other key expenditure lines such as winter operations and health insurance expense but, as the finance committee re-engages in January and beyond, regular updates will be made available,” Snyder said.

Snyder also addressed the findings of the city’s Racial Equity Steering Committee, created in the summer of 2020, and said Interim City Manager Danielle West has proposed working with the council to create an office or department of diversity, equity and inclusion to begin to address the city’s nearly three dozen recommendations.

“This approach is designed to provide sustainability – and resources – for this important work,” Snyder said. “It would commit funding in annual operating budgets and would allow council committees to engage with dedicated staff who will be responsible to review, assess and seek implementation of recommendations from the RESC final report.”

A council workshop on the proposal is scheduled for Jan. 24.

Snyder also addressed developments in sustainability. She said the city is working to make itself an electric vehicle charging hub and will soon announce a partnership to vastly expand the existing network of chargers.

Snyder said 2021 was an exciting year for development in education, with the Roux Institute at Northeastern University now employing more than 90 Mainers in its second academic year; the University of New England moving ahead with plans to move its medical school to Portland; and progress continuing on a new residence hall at the University of Southern Maine, slated to open in 2023.

“While I am daily conscious of the need to calibrate to the facts of the days we are in, I am optimistic we can make our way through the challenges and be stronger as a result,” Snyder said. “My thanks to my colleagues for your service, to city staff for your everyday dedication and hard work, and thank you to our wonderful Portland community. … Your city government feels the stress to be sure but it’s also hard at work, diligent and dedicated to public service.”

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