Homelessness, Hygiene & Harm Reduction

I spent three years as a Forensic Intensive Case Manager for Maine DHHS, working closely with Preble Street. I've seen what it costs someone to spend a day looking for a bathroom.

Three things I'd push for.

Fund 24-hour public restrooms in Bayside and downtown, sited with providers and neighbors together, with staffing and maintenance budgeted from day one. Unstaffed facilities fail and then get used as proof the idea doesn't work.

Fix what already exists. Someone told me his son couldn't reach the bathrooms at a city shelter for hours each morning during cleaning, because they sit on the side of the building that's closed off. That's not a funding problem. That's a scheduling and staffing problem, and it's solvable this year.

Build showers into a permanent day space rather than treating them as separate — hygiene, laundry, mail, and case management in one place people can actually walk to.

Dignity isn't a service add-on. It's the precondition for everything else.

Yes.

When only 6% of people have consistent daily access to food and 73% go at least one day a week without eating, ending a central distribution point would be a decision to let people go hungry.

I'd keep Cotton Street operating and strengthen it. That means funding the nonprofit partners who staff it, not just authorizing the site — and it means listening to the people who use it about what would make it work better. Hours matter. Location matters. Whether you can get there matters.

I'd also push to pair distribution with connection: SNAP enrollment, benefits navigation, and a path toward housing available in the same place people already come for a meal. Meeting a need is good. Meeting a need where someone can also take a next step is better.

And I'd want us honest that a food line is a symptom. The goal is a city where fewer people need one — but you don't get there by removing the line first.

Yes, and it should have a housing pipeline attached.

A day space that's only a warm room helps people survive the day. A day space with case management, benefits enrollment, showers, mail, and a housing queue changes where people are six months later. Salem, Oregon's navigation center enrolls people in rapid rehousing the day they walk in — over half its residents moved into permanent housing in the first year. Hayward, California's moved 64% of exits into permanent housing.

On sustainability: a program that ends in March isn't a program, it's a pilot. I'd fund it as a standing line item rather than a seasonal allocation, braid opioid settlement dollars with state and federal streams so no single source can end it, and contract with providers on multi-year terms so staff aren't rebuilding trust every winter.

A staff member who's done this work six years told me what makes it fail: bringing people in with no plan attached. He's right.

Yes.

Low-barrier shelters are where people with substance use disorder actually connect to treatment. If Portland's three are facing costs that outrun their funding, that's a bill coming due somewhere else — in emergency rooms, in the jail, on the street.

On strengthening the system: I'd want the city to fund outcomes rather than beds alone. Publish how many people move from shelter to housing, verified, and how many are still housed at six and twelve months. San Francisco once reported navigation center placements three times better than reality by counting bus tickets out of town as housing. You can't fix what you won't measure honestly.

I'd also press for regional participation. More than 400 people who sought Portland's Homelessness Services Center came from other Maine towns. That's not Portland's failure — it's Portland's turn to ask for help, through the county and through Augusta.

Yes.

National best practice isn't restriction — it's expansion paired with real services. CDC's own technical package defines a "comprehensive" program as syringes plus wound care, testing, naloxone, and treatment linkage in one visit, not just needles handed out. Only about 11% of U.S. programs reach that standard today, and the ones that do get there mostly through public — not federal — funding.

Cities our size already run this model. Burlington, Vermont provides comprehensive care through Vermont CARES: testing, wound care, mobile outreach, and a direct pipeline to ongoing treatment. Ithaca, New York's STAP pairs syringe access with housing help and care management across an eight-county region — the same regional role Portland already plays for Maine.

I'd contract with Maine's certified programs using opioid settlement dollars, with support from partners like NAMI Maine and a hard look at hospital cost-offsets, and build toward that same comprehensive model here.

This is the one I've been writing about.

Four pedestrians were killed on Portland streets in 2025. Statewide, 26 walking or biking died — the deadliest year since records began in 2003. If your only way to reach services is on foot, our streets are part of the service.

Finish the sidewalks. Continuous, ADA-compliant routes on corridors people actually walk. At a Planning Board meeting last week, neighbor after neighbor described sidewalks uneven, unsafe, and nonexistent in stretches — one resident has documented it for thirty years. That's a council vote through the Capital Improvement Program.

Fund real shuttle service to the HSC, at hours that match need — and fund it regionally. 400+ people who use Portland's Homelessness Services Center come from other towns. Portland shouldn't carry that cost alone; the county and state belong at the table.

And put services where people already are. A permanent day space on the peninsula means fewer people traveling five miles for a shower.