Months after clearing a camp, Portland stills has tons of of homeless tents
PORTLAND, Maine — Maine State Trooper Connor Willard handed out rubbish luggage to homeless campers within the park-and-ride lot on Marginal Approach on Wednesday morning, telling them they’d should squeeze 50-or-so tents into the jap finish of the lot by Thursday.
That’s when the Maine Division of Transportation plans on briefly dividing the lot in half: one for vehicles and one for campers.
The 50-yard transfer to the opposite finish of the lot is the most recent reshuffling of Portland’s homeless inhabitants which started in Could when officers cleared a big encampment from the Bayside Path. With one other clearance impending at a Frederick Road tent village, campers, close by enterprise homeowners and homeless advocates say the Bayside clearance did little to deal with town’s homelessness conundrum and easily scattered individuals to different peninsula camps.
An off-the-cuff depend on Wednesday morning revealed at the very least 205 tents arrange, in varied teams, close to town’s downtown.
The Marginal Approach lot had nearly 50 tents and one other close by enclave, on the sting of Deering Oaks Park, sported 30, or so. At the very least 24 tents clustered round a public path close to the Portland finish of the Casco Bay Bridge. One other dozen lined a grassy strip on the finish of the Western Promenade. Upwards of 100 tents and shanty-style dwellings lined the general public path on the finish of Frederick Road.
Marginal Approach camper Bruce Cavallaro acquired one in all Willard’s clear plastic rubbish luggage on Wednesday, regardless that he’s presently arrange on the DOT’s camping-approved finish of the lot.
“Was that only a picture op?” Cavallaro stated after the trooper moved on to the following patch of tents.
Cavallaro indicated he’d been residing on the grass perimeter of the parking zone since being moved off the close by Bayside Path on Could 16. He’d been tenting there because the earlier autumn.
“All that did was unfold individuals out and now I don’t know the place the individuals from the opposite finish of the parking zone are going to go,” Cavallaro stated. “There’s already plenty of tents arrange down right here.”
After making the transfer throughout Marginal Approach, from the path to the lot, Cavallaro stated he’d gotten onto a ready record for housing however wasn’t hopeful he’d get sheltered earlier than the top of summer season.
Whereas Willard moved between tents, a enterprise proprietor from throughout Marginal Approach approached him asking why everybody was being moved to the top of the lot instantly throughout from his store.
“I don’t have a solution for you. That’s above my paygrade,” Willard stated.
A DOT spokesperson didn’t reply particular questions concerning the transfer on Wednesday, referring solely to a information launch which stated the company could be “briefly dividing the Marginal Approach park-and-ride facility into two areas to accommodate the competing makes use of.”
“MaineDOT, in coordination with Maine State Police, will proceed to observe and clear the state-owned land alongside I-295 with a view to protect public security,” it learn.
The parking zone is adjoining to Interstate 295 and it’s unclear whether or not campers there would finally be instructed to depart.
The businessman, who spoke on situation of anonymity out of worry of retaliation, stated having the tent village in entrance of his retailer, relatively than behind it, on the Bayside Path, was no enchancment. He cited human waste, spent needles and a number of ambulance calls per week as impacting his backside line and making his workers really feel unsafe.
“If this was taking place in individuals’s good, cozy neighborhoods within the suburbs, they wouldn’t be blissful about it,” he stated.
Dana Stailing of the Milestone Restoration Heart’s H.O.M.E. Workforce stated she’d seen no discount in service calls because the Bayside Path encampment was scattered.
“It’s the identical — it’s simply made it more durable for us to seek out individuals,” Stailing stated.
The H.O.M.E. Workforce offers state of affairs de-escalation and transportation for homeless people experiencing acute psychological well being or substance use dysfunction points. The group responds to 10 to twenty calls per day, which come from non-public residents in addition to the police dispatcher.
Calls to Portland Mayor Kate Snyder and Well being and Human Companies Division Director Kristen Dow weren’t returned Wednesday afternoon.
Stailing spoke on the cellphone whereas responding to a name on the huge tent encampment off Frederick Road, which metropolis officers have focused for clearance by Sept. 6.
“That’s going to be extraordinarily dangerous,” Crusing stated.
