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It is easy to stereotype people who are unhoused. We know, we’ve done it. We’ve written about “the homeless,” which can turn them into a faceless monolith.
Three stories this week by BDN writer Kathleen O’Brien remind us of the dangers and fallacies of treating those who are unhoused as a one group. Yes, the growing number of people in Maine who are unhoused share the commonality of lacking housing. But the reasons for their living in a tent, a shelter, a car or on a riverbank may be very different. And, therefore, the best ways to get them into affordable and stable housing may be very different.
O’Brien introduced us to David Williams, who has worked as an assistant to a master electrician. Just three weeks ago, he and his wife lived in an apartment in Old Town. When their rent nearly doubled, they could no longer afford to live there. They are now staying in the Bangor encampment behind Hope House.
Williams sleeps in a tent so his nightmares, prompted by post-traumatic stress disorder, don’t wake his wife, Maria Pounds, who has severe mobility issues and stays in a nearby RV with no heat or power. Williams said he tried to get a bed in the Hope House, but the facility is full. He’s working with a case worker now, he said, to see what options are available.
The couple had once lived in an encampment on the Bangor waterfront under the Interstate 395 bridge. Bangor police Sgt. Wade Betters helped them get the Old Town apartment, where they lived for three years. The state’s Bridging Rental Assistance Program helped the couple afford the $725 rent.
The landlord recently told Williams he could stay if he paid $1,400, he said. He didn’t have the money so the couple left the apartment and most of their belongings.
“Here we are, and I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Williams said. “Winter is coming, and I’m at a loss. I’m scared to death around here.”
Craig Stevens works 60 hours a week for a building contractor. He has been homeless for four years. He’s had numerous jobs at lumber mills and railroad companies, but also dealt with alcohol use.
Stevens now spends his nights in the Hope House in a dorm room with four others. He has access to a bathroom and shower, and he’s able to secure his belongings, which is important because he works all day.
Although he currently makes $700 a week, Stevens said the work is unpredictable, and because he is working all day, he finds it difficult to connect with services that could help him find transitional housing. Stevens also stressed the need for more help to connect unhoused people with mental health support and recovery services.
“I think everybody should experience homelessness for a year,” Stevens said. “It costs a lot more than people think it does, and it can happen to anyone. It’s not a choice, and it’s a public health issue.”
Both he and Williams talk of the increasing danger, in part because of drug use, at the city’s homeless encampments.
Damien Jenkins, 18, was homeless until four months ago. After being suspended from high school for being accused of making a threat he said he did not make, he attended multiple schools before dropping out. He then became involved with “drugs, gangs and things I shouldn’t have,” he said. At 16, he left his parents house and stayed at the Shaw House, but he was kicked out and lived in a house where drugs were bought and sold. He said he overdosed more than 40 times before one overdose, after he took fentanyl and was revived with several doses of Narcan, scared him enough to seek help.
Jenkins said he decided to turn his life around after forming a bond with Terry Dinkins, pastor of the Mansion Church in Bangor, last winter. He now distributes food, clothing and other items to those he used to live with in the encampment. He has housing and hopes to become a youth minister.
“It feels good to help my brothers and sisters I used to be homeless with,” Jenkins said. “Them seeing me doing well and helping to feed them, clothe them and take care of them, they realize I’ve changed and it gives them hope, because none of them thought I could get back on my feet.”
Each of their lives are different, but there are some commonalities — trauma, economic dislocation, disconnection from family and friends and, for some, substance use. Their stories point obviously to the need for more affordable housing, but also to the need for more outreach and support services to connect people with the many services that may be of help.
Most of all, these stories remind us that an unexpected rent increase, the loss of a job and disconnection from family can easily tip someone into homelessness. They also show us that, with supports and connections, being unhoused isn’t permanent.
