The city of Portland closed a temporary shelter for up to 300 asylum seekers at the James A. Banks Portland Exhibition Building today, shuttling nearly 200 asylum seekers to hotels in Lewiston and Freeport.
On Wednesday morning, up to 60 families, or 191 people, were moved to hotels, according to city spokesperson Jessica Grondin.
Grondin said the city contracted with a hotel in Freeport to house asylum seekers for one year, and for “a few months,” with a hotel in Lewiston. She declined to identify the hotels by name.
About 10 buses and vans lined up outside the Portland Expo Wednesday. One of the newcomers blew kisses to onlookers in a show of appreciation for the city, which set up the emergency shelter in April after a flood of people arrived — more than 1,600, mostly from Angola and Congo, since the start of the year.
Communities around the country have been dealing with growing numbers of asylum seekers, and have braced for more as the Biden administration sought to put in place new restrictions after the lifting of pandemic restrictions on asylum.
In Portland, the arrival of newcomers strained city services and coincided with the end of pandemic funding in May, which had allowed many unhoused people to stay in motels. Since then, homeless tent cities have begun growing around the city.
The city opened the shelter at the expo on April 10, and planned to keep it open through the summer.
“This is a very dire situation and the opening of the expo is the last overnight overflow space that we as city staff have available to open and operate,” then-Interim City Manager Danielle West said at the time. “We are truly beyond our capacity to be able to continue to provide compassionate care for those seeking shelter.”
Grondin said she hopes asylum seekers won’t have to be housed in motels for too long as slots open up in the city's family shelter. The motel costs are expected to be about $500,000, on top of about $540,000 spent for temporary housing at the arena. But the city won’t have to pick up the entire tab for those costs since the state will contribute, she said.
Asylum seekers first began arriving in large numbers in 2019, many arriving with harrowing tales of their escape from violence and poverty in their homelands.
Now, the city is still trying to find even a temporary solution that doesn’t involve hotels.
One option is coming from Developers Collaborative. The Portland-based company plans what it describes as “an emergency shelter for individuals experiencing homelessness,” according to a proposal to the Portland City Council.
The proposal, approved by the council on June 12, calls for renovating an existing building at 166 Riverside Industrial Parkway into a 180-bed facility. Grondin said she believes the facility will be finished by November.
On July 18, the city, along with the Greater Portland Council of Governments and the Quality Housing Coalition, announced the creation of Homeshare, a new program geared toward finding small-scale landlords for people seeking housing.
Victoria Morales, the coalition’s executive director, said the program will cater to people such as asylum seekers, and calls for individual property owners to volunteer to rent out property, such as a room or accessory dwelling unit.
Volunteers, she said, would be compensated between $750 and $900 a month per room, paid for by local General Assistance funding. Through the program, tenants would be guaranteed rent for at least one year.
“The guaranteed rent and support services are key,” Belinda Ray, director of strategic partnerships at the Greater Portland Council of Governments, said in a statement. “These elements will make it possible to find housing for more families, and it will give those families the stability they need.”
Right now, Morales said, the coalition is screening more than 60 applicants, and hopes to offer as many as 15-20 separate rental units to asylum seekers.
Grondin said the city welcomes the coalition’s new program.
“Any families that they can match up is obviously very helpful for us,” she said.
With reporting by the Associated Press.
