Portland still struggles with homelessness and is “running out of runway” regarding resources to combat the problem, according to Mayor Mark Dion.

Dion, speaking at his annual State of the City address before the city council Monday night, painted a stark picture of the “diminished capacity” the city has for accommodating its homeless population, and called on the state legislature for more funding to help.

“We are doing more than any other community in the state to meet that issue, but as I said two years ago, and we are beginning to see it today, we are running out of runway to meet the demand,” he said.

Dion touched on a number of issues in his 23-minute address and spoke for less than two minutes on homelessness, but he renewed requests for assistance, saying that city officials cannot tackle the problem alone. 

“We are running out of space, our staff is stretched too thin, and we cannot expect our taxpayers to continue to shoulder the financial burden involved in providing these services where half of the unhoused come from outside the city,” he said.

Over the past three years, Portland has seen an influx of thousands of asylum seekers, which overwhelmed the city’s capacity then for accommodating the homeless.

The surge in immigrants forced the city to rent out hotels, open the Portland Expo as a temporary shelter, and eventually construct a new homeless services center on Riverside Street with more than 250 beds.

On Monday, Dion told the council that the city helped 2,000 people find shelter in 2024, with an average of 600 people across three different shelters every night. 

That said, Dion emphasized that the city needs help. He asked local legislative delegates to press their colleagues in Augusta for more funding for homeless services, “which by any objective measurement should be defined as a state responsibility.”

Also on Monday night, Dion addressed the issue of crime in the city, expressing concerns that violence for Portland residents is becoming “routine.” 

Dion also praised officials for rolling out the ReCode initiative, a seven-year project to produce the first major overhaul of the city’s building codes in more than 50 years.

The project, Dion said, “set a platform that will guide and shape the landscape of Portland for years to come.”