Storage will be offered to people who will be forced out of the city’s largest homeless encampment Friday morning, Bangor city leaders announced Thursday. But those who refuse to leave will be given criminal trespass orders.
City staff, police and local service providers will be at the encampment, often called Tent City or Camp Hope, on Friday to offer support to those who must leave “without disrupting the lives of those who will remain,” according to a statement from the city. Providers will also have totes for people’s personal items, and can offer storage options for things that are too large to carry.
The city claims those who will be forced to leave are people who have “refused” to engage with outreach staff and have acted in a way that “endangers the well-being of others.”
The decision to remove some people was “based on safety and security concerns for those individuals within the encampment who are engaged with services providers, as observed, and reported by individuals on site, including outreach, as well as neighbors,” according to the city’s statement.
If someone refuses to leave, they will be given a criminal trespass order, but those orders will not automatically become part of a person’s criminal record, according to the city’s statement.
Outreach workers walked through the encampment on Monday, which is located behind the Hope House Health and Living Center, and posted the notices stating that people who have “refused” to accept services from outreach workers must leave the encampment by Friday, Oct. 20.
The move comes after three months of outreach efforts where local service providers attempted to work with people in the encampment individually to find housing for them. Many people either chose not to accept help or haven’t found housing yet despite working with a case manager.
Bangor leaders said outreach workers were “thoughtful and methodical” when trying to give proper notice to those who will be forced to leave the encampment, but several people living there reported said they weren’t clearly informed of what would happen on Friday. There was also confusion over what green tape, which outreach workers put on some people’s shelters, meant.
