Bangor has housed 12 people from the city’s largest homeless encampment in the month since announcing it would close the land at the end of the year.
Another seven people who live in the wooded area behind the Hope House Health and Living Center are in the process of leasing a space, and six more are scheduled to look at potential housing soon, according to Jena Jones, Bangor’s homelessness response manager.
Since Oct. 10, city outreach workers and other community partners have helped two people reconnect with family while another 21 have been matched with housing vouchers needed to get people moved into permanent housing, according to Jones.
The people who have moved or are in the process of moving into permanent housing are among the roughly 70 people recently living in tents, vehicles and rudimentary shelters off Cleveland Street and Texas Avenue in Bangor.
Last month, the city announced plans to close the encampment, often called Tent City or Camp Hope, by Dec. 31 after moving everyone living there into some kind of housing or shelter. City leaders cited increasing illegal activity and violent episodes as the reason for the sudden shuttering.
If successful, the city would remove one of the most visible representations of homelessness in the region, which grew significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the city has struggled to effectively address the crisis.
Jones gave Bangor city councilors an update on the closure process in a workshop meeting Wednesday. The news came a few days after a man in the encampment died after a fire broke out in his tent Sunday night.
“Though this process is nuanced and requires delicate balance and care, we are seeing forward momentum and real signs of positive changes occurring,” Jones wrote in a memo to councilors. “Encampment residents have been engaging in the shelter resources available and we hear from outreach teams that more people continue to express willingness to consider those options as we progress through the closure.”
In addition to helping people access housing, some local organizations have stepped up to help people living in the encampment develop skills they need to succeed in their daily lives, such as using public transportation, Jones said.
The recent housing push comes more than a year after a team of more than 40 workers from 10-plus local and state agencies closed and cleared another smaller encampment on Valley Avenue after moving everyone there into permanent or temporary housing.
Though the encampment isn’t yet closed and cleared, Bangor councilors last week voted to offer Dignity First, a local homelessness nonprofit, the opportunity to lease the roughly 7 acres there before another entity. Jamie Beck, executive director of Dignity First, hopes to eventually create a village of tiny homes to be permanent supportive housing for people who are homeless.
Jones updated councilors on the progress happening in the encampment as a group of protestors gathered outside City Hall to oppose the closure of encampment. Several members of the crowd then spoke during the public comment portion of the city’s meeting on Wednesday to oppose the “sweep” of the encampment.
Jones, however, opposed the term “sweep” to define the work happening in the encampment during her update to councilors.
“Sweep,” Jones said, implies an encampment is being forced closed without offering the people living there resources or assistance. The work city officials and other volunteers are conducting is compassionate, humane and done with the goal of moving people into stable, permanent housing that will keep them safe and warm, Jones said.
