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Rick Fournier is the chair of the Bangor City Council. This column was written by the full council: Clare Davitt, Susan Hawes, Joseph Leonard, Angela Okafor, Gretchen Schaefer, Jonathan Sprague, Dan Tremble, and Dina Yacoubagha.
Bangor is just one epicenter of an increasing homelessness crisis. The effects of COVID, substance use disorder and untreated mental illness top the list of contributing factors, along with rising rents and a severe shortage of affordable housing. The substantial number of homeless individuals coming from other areas of the state and country exacerbates these challenges.
As homelessness has become more prevalent, so too have our community responses. Bangor Daily News articles regarding increasingly visible problems have garnered much attention. Sensational newspaper headlines are often inconsistent with the facts and much of the story has gone unmentioned.
Recently, 20 organizations participated in public meetings of the city’s Government Operations Committee and discussed their work alleviating homelessness. Outreach workers from the city, Penobscot Community Health Care, Community Health and Counseling and other groups work daily with the unhoused, trying to keep people alive, linking them to services and helping them access permanent housing. Virtually all the above mentioned services are available county and statewide.
The Bangor Area Homeless Shelter, Hope House, Shaw House and other organizations provide shelter to many individuals. During the warmer summer and early fall months, these facilities had multiple beds available, yet some people still chose to live in encampments. For some, profound mental health and substance use disorder are barriers to being sheltered or housed.
During winter months, the Brick Church, the Mansion Church and the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter operate warming shelters, often staffed by hard-to-recruit volunteers. While the individual may be protected from the elements that night, this cannot be a permanent solution. The city is working with multiple organizations to assure that there is adequate emergency warming capacity this winter.
From our work with city staff and other organizations in the city, we know that organizations, agencies and individuals from across the state are dropping people on our sidewalks or providing bus tickets or cab fare to Bangor with no accompanying plan for meeting their needs. Warming shelters are used by these same groups, which can result in a person becoming unsheltered in Bangor, a city many have no connection or familiarity with. The most common refrain heard is “there are resources in Bangor.” These organizations, agencies and individuals are failing to address their obligations and are shifting their responsibilities to this city.
City officials and their community are working to implement the State of Maine’s Built for Zero strategy, which is designed to bring homelessness to functional zero. While not a quick fix, this approach offers the promise of essential regional collaboration.
The city has been aggressively addressing the need for affordable housing based on a 2019 community-wide housing study. The number of abandoned properties has been reduced, zoning changes are freeing up options, and over 345 new housing units are anticipated to either open or break ground in the next six to 12 months. Additional options for tiny houses and pallet villages are being explored, and the city is hiring a housing specialist.
Significant strides are being made to address substance use disorder and to expand mental health services. In addition, the city will be implementing a new strategy with the deployment of two non-police officer response teams. It is said that if you have met one unsheltered individual, all you have met is one unsheltered individual. This highlights the fact that each persons’ journey out of homelessness is unique, which is why there is no one solution to solve homelessness; if there were it would have been implemented across the nation.
Every day, our inability to solve the problem leaves us frustrated and angry; it tests our humanity. So what can we do now to address the needs? Support the organizations already performing this work through a donation of time or resources, or work within your own community to ensure resources are available to keep those who are unsheltered connected to their community where natural supports already exist. Government cannot solve all problems, but the Bangor City Council will always work collaboratively to meet our shared responsibilities.
