The Portland City Council extended the limited emergency extension of the capacity of its homeless services center Monday night, while the city waits to finalize a measure to make the extension permanent.

The council voted unanimously to approve the extension, which allows an additional 50 beds to remain available, making the 654 Riverside St. center’s capacity 258 beds.

The center opened in March 2023 and was nearly filled right away. The city council approved an order to expand its capacity on Nov. 13, 2023. The order, described as a “limited emergency” measure, was extended from Feb. 5 to June 3.

On Monday, City Manager Danielle West told the council that the center houses 222 individuals on average on a nightly basis. 

“Many nights, we’re hovering at about 240 beds, and sometimes that fluctuates even higher than that,” she said.

Last month, the Planning Board approved a proposal to make the extension permanent, but on Monday night West said technically the decision has an appeals period, so she is asking the council to approve extending the emergency period until the board’s decision is finalized.

There were few public comments but one speaker, who identified herself as “Julie,” an advocacy supervisor at Preble Street, spoke in favor of the extension.

She noted that since the extension was put in place, the center has housed over 75 more people. While there, she said, center workers were able to help the unhoused locate more permanent housing. 

“As long as there are people who are living outside, unsheltered in our city, there will be a need to have these available beds so that outreach workers can continue the work of successfully connecting them with this critical resource,” she said.

The council vote was unanimous, but Councilor Kate Sykes said she wanted to amend procedures for issues relating to the center’s capacity going forward. The expansion was technically a site plan amendment, and within the board’s purview but, she noted, the permanent expansion will add more than half a million dollars to the center’s annual budget. 

Sykes said a decision to make such an expansion permanent should ultimately be in the hands of the council, not the planning board.

“The fact that it never came to a council vote feels like the wrong process for me, and so what I’m hoping is that in the future, we can send up a shelter ordinance, so this is actually not a city operations decision, not a planning board decision but rather a council decision,” she said.