When Portland’s new homeless service center opened on March 28, it was already filled to capacity. But for those able to secure space, the new center’s amenities are clearly an upgrade from the Oxford Street shelter it replaced.
“It’s like a whole new world,” said Kevin Carter, 55, who is staying at the center while he works to find housing of his own.
Jason Chan, assistant director of operations, said the new 50,000-square-foot facility on Riverside Street dwarfs the former center’s building.
“That entire building would fit inside our women’s dorm now,” he said.
The new center offers more than just a larger footprint. The Oxford Street center used to offer hot meals, but those were brought in from another location in South Portland and kept warm. The new center has its own kitchen.
“Everything tastes fresh,” Chan said. “It doesn’t taste like somebody went down to South Portland and brought it back and it sat for 45 minutes.”
On Wednesday afternoon, residents were watching television in common areas indoors, while an outdoor seating area awaited warmer weather. Chan noted a series of planters will be available for a local community garden, and there are plans to install a basketball hoop.
“It’s important for people to have something to do,” he said.
The dormitories are also a significant upgrade. Chan said at the Oxford Street location, there was room for 154 people to sleep, but “beds” were hardly an accurate description.
For many of its residents, he said, common areas had to be converted into dorms at night, with mats laid out on the floor. He then put his feet together and pointed at his shoes, saying that was how much room there was between the mats.
The new center has 208 beds, which are actual cots that staff members clean daily. They are gathered in two large rooms, one for men and one for women. Individual cots have short walls around them that offer some privacy while lying down, and there are even charging ports available.
Residents are assigned one bed and one locker with combination lock while staying at the center, Chan said.
The new center is also hiring 15 additional positions, making up a total of more than 100 staff.
The center works with other organizations, such as MaineHousing and Maine Behavioral Health, who can now meet with residents in dedicated office space for counseling on getting access to services such as health care.
Greater Portland Health is also planning on opening a full-fledged clinic on the property, both for residents and the public, offering dentistry, general medicine and lab work, Chan said.
When the city broke ground on the center’s construction in March of last year, critics argued that it was too far away from the Oxford Street center’s more centralized location.
Chan said staff have thought of that, with a shuttle service that runs from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, taking residents into the city and back. Chan said staffers are available to pick up residents outside of the shuttle’s operating hours, if necessary.
“It hasn’t come up yet,” he said.
Carter had been living at the Oxford Street center since October 2022, and now has a cot at the new center. After injuries from a motorcycle accident in 2021 left him permanently disabled, he has struggled to find income and permanent housing.
Now, he has a part-time job at Market Basket in Westbrook and has arranged for federal disability income. He said this will make it easier for the center’s counselors to help him find permanent housing, which is his long-term goal.
Carter said the center’s location hasn’t been a problem for him, and he is grateful for what the center has offered him.
When asked where he would be without it, he said, “I’d probably be tenting it.”
Chan said permanent housing is every resident’s ultimate goal, and the center’s staff is working to help, from partnering with other nonprofits to working an ad-hoc network of local landlords looking for tenants.
Despite this, even the expanded new center is feeling the pressure of the volume of people seeking shelter. At Oxford Street, Chan said, there was a permanent waiting list of around 30 people, “and that’s the people who bothered to sign up for it.”
Right now, he said, he wasn’t sure yet how long the waiting list will be at the new center, but even the 54 extra beds at the new center filled up fast.
“Every single one was full from Day One,” he said.
Multiple city officials, including Portland Mayor Kate Snyder, have said other large communities in Maine need to do their part to address the state’s homeless population. Chan agreed, and said he hoped the state could help find additional property that could serve as temporary emergency shelter like the city’s new center.
“We’re hitting critical mass here,” he said. “It just can’t be on Portland to figure this out.”