Bangor closes homeless camps at year's end

Bangor plans to close its largest homeless camp by the end of the year.

Bangor City Manager Debbie Laurie announced in a memo to city councilors that outreach workers aim to provide housing and other resources to all residents of the encampment behind the Hope House Health and Living Center before it closes on Dec. 31 is closed.

While outreach workers have not yet provided permanent housing for the more than 70 people at the camp, Laurie said the city decided to close the site due to “an alarming increase in illegal activity, particularly related to allegations of violence among camp residents.” . ”

Details of the city's plans and what factors contributed to the decision are contained in a four-page document posted on the city's website. The city council is scheduled to discuss the plans in a workshop on Wednesday evening.

It's not clear what would happen if the camp's residents refused to leave, or how the city would prevent people from returning there. Laurie could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.

The encampment, colloquially called “Tent City” or “Camp Hope,” grew during the pandemic as social distancing and occupancy limits limited the number of people who could be housed in local homeless shelters. Some people chose to live outside, gathering in a wooded area between Texas Avenue and Cleveland Street to live in tents, RVs, cars and other rudimentary shelters.

Since then, Tent City has become the most visible expression of the region's struggle to solve homelessness, which intersects with other nationwide challenges, including the opioid epidemic and the housing crisis.

The city's social workers want to place the camp's 73 residents in some type of housing by the end of the year while maintaining connection to other resources, Laurie wrote to city councilors. The ideal scenario is to permanently house the camp's residents in supportive housing, but Laurie acknowledged that some may need to stay temporarily at a local shelter or warming center.

“The opening of warming shelters across the city will provide a new opportunity to incentivize people currently living in camp to seek shelter indoors,” Laurie said.

The first of the warming centers in Bangor opens November 1st and the last closes April 15th. Some operate during the day, giving people a warm, safe place to escape the harsh winter weather, and others are open at night.

Construction to convert the former Pine Tree Inn next to the camp into 41 permanent housing units for homeless people is on track to be completed by the end of the year, according to Jason Bird, director of housing development for Penquis. Penquis, a nonprofit social services agency based in Bangor, will offer tenants on-site services, such as addiction support.

While this facility, called Theresa's Place, cannot house all of the camp's residents, it could accommodate people who have been living in local shelters, freeing up beds for people forced to leave Tent City.

The closure announcement comes more than a year after a team of more than 40 workers from more than 10 local and state agencies closed and cleared another smaller camp on Valley Avenue after moving everyone there into permanent or temporary housing. This work was led by a team from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that specializes in rapidly rehousing people.

However, 30 percent of the people housed at the Valley Avenue camp returned to the outdoors six months later.

After the Valley Avenue camp closed in April 2023, the city focused on repeating the process at the camp behind Hope House. But that work has long been hampered by a lack of resources, such as housing vouchers needed to move people into permanent housing, Laurie told the Bangor Daily News earlier this year.

Despite the delay, Laurie said outreach workers have continued to contact people in the camp to build trust, help them access other essentials and coordinate housing as it becomes available.

Of the 73 camp residents known to the city, 22 regularly participate in outreach services, meaning they attend appointments several times a week to complete housing applications, rental inspections, court proceedings, treatment and other check-ins. Another 31 people use these services occasionally, while the remaining 20 people do not use the resources offered.

Laurie's memo did not say what will happen to the people who live in the camp and are not involved with outreach workers.

The city decided to set the closure date for Dec. 31 after an increase in illegal activity heightened concerns about the health and safety of people in and around the camp, Laurie said. The camp is adjacent to the University of Maine Augusta campus, a daycare center and health departments.

From Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, Bangor police received 501 calls from or related to the camp. Of those, 30 calls involved serious threats to a person's well-being, including sex offenders, weapons, overdoses and assaults, Laurie said.

Despite the hundreds of calls, Laurie said camp residents' continued unwillingness to talk to police to “report and deter violent crimes has ensured that much of the violence against camp residents and their belongings continues to go unreported.”

In addition, by injecting drugs and used needle litter in the camp, some residents of the camp are exposing all residents and providers who enter the area to blood-borne diseases, Laurie said. This is particularly risky now as Penobscot County has seen an increase in HIV and hepatitis C cases among injecting drug users.

Laurie said the city will use the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness's 19 Strategies for Communities to Humanely and Effectively Respond to Encampments as a guide in the coming months. The document emphasizes the importance of ensuring that homeless people have access to essential goods such as food, water and healthcare.

“We recognize that the closure will impact the lives of camp residents, and we intend to provide clear communication and expectations to residents and partners as we move forward,” Laurie said.