Portland on Thursday again postponed the removal of encampments at Harbor View Memorial Park and Douglass Street until next week, citing the weather.
For some unhoused residents living in those encampments, this is the sixth time they will be moved out.
“I’ve experienced all six since last spring,” Bruce Cavallaro said.
Cavallaro carefully tucks his friend’s small dog Jax into his open jacket to shield him from the rain. A 45-year-old veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder who struggles with panic attacks, Cavallaro has been at the Harbor View encampment since November. Before that he was at the Park and Ride campsite, at Bayside Park before that and behind Trader Joe’s before that.
He said the constant upheaval and jeers from the public are upsetting.
“Not everybody here does drugs. I’m in recovery and several others are. When they drive by and throw things at us and shout obscenities at us, that’s not nice. We’re people, too. What if it was you? Your husband, wife, daughter or son. We deserve the same respect as people who are housed,” Cavallaro said.
Erica Mathies, Jax’s owner, has her own story.
“It was during COVID, we lost our jobs and didn’t have enough to pay rent and got evicted,” she said.
Mathies, who is 24, dreams of becoming a kindergarten teacher or a veterinarian. But her aspirations are on hold right now as she considers her options before the city takes down the encampment next week.
Cavallaro has stayed at the Homeless Services Center before and believes the city is trying to be accommodating. While he’s considering going back there, Cavallaro doesn’t want to leave his friends behind.
Portland Mayor Mark Dion said the city has a duty to protect those who are living outside at this time of year.
“If it’s a choice between having anxiety in a group space or taunting death by exposure or fire or overdose in an unsupervised campsite, I think the choice is clear as far as the city’s responsibility to ensure everyone’s safety,” he said.
Advocates for the unhoused said 45 people have died this year from illness, overdose and tent fires in the encampments.
Dion said the shelter has social workers, on-site medication treatment, transportation, a late curfew and now allows pets, all in an effort to draw people inside. Dion said the city is trying to meet unhoused residents where they are, but that the campers need to meet the city halfway.
Mathies is ready to do that.
“I don’t like the sweeps,” she said. “I think they’re terrible.”
As rain trickled down her cheeks, Mathies said it’s time to pack up her things and go to the Homeless Services Center, because one major obstacle, her dog Jax, has been removed.
“So we just talked to them and they said I could bring him with me as long as he stays with me at all times which he does anyway,” she said.
As of Thursday morning, 95 beds at the Homeless Services Center were open. Dion is hopeful that with time more unhoused residents will come inside, where their other problems can be addressed.
The new date for encampment removal is Tuesday. Per city ordinance, camping on public property is prohibited.
The Maine Department of Transportation cleared an encampment of unhoused residents on Douglass Street in Portland on its property near Interstate 295 on Thursday.
This article appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
