Westbrook will consider new rules to allow small emergency shelters for the first time

The Westbrook City Council is close to approving an emergency shelter ordinance that would allow private providers to open small shelters in certain types of buildings, including single-family homes and churches.

The city’s current ordinance prohibits overnight shelters and is seen by advocates as a legal barrier that blocks resources needed to help people achieve stability and obtain long-term housing. Today, city leaders say they recognize the need to make changes to support the city’s growing homeless population and that the best path forward is to allow churches and other agencies to open small-scale facilities.

The council will hold a public hearing and final vote on the zoning changes Monday evening. The city has no plans to build or operate a shelter and no proposals for outside organizations are currently being considered.

“Homelessness in our community is actually a product of the current housing crisis we are seeing across our region. We are trying to provide a framework for civic organizations in our community to provide emergency shelter, if they have the capacity and willingness, and to have a permitting mechanism to do so in appropriate circumstances,” said Acting Mayor David Morse.

The idea of ​​changing the ordinance to allow small shelters was supported by the Westbrook Housing Coalition, which formed in 2022 out of concern for the hundreds of residents at risk of becoming homeless as emergency federal aid the rent ended. The coalition recognized that people from Westbrook who become homeless often travel to Portland for services or to try to access shelter, but many fall through the cracks, said Liz McLellan, coalition co-chair .

“Portland has shouldered a lot of the brunt of this,” she said. “We wanted to show people that Westbrook is open to shelters.”

Last fall, the City Council tasked the planning committee with developing zoning and permitting requirements for small shelters. It does not allow for the creation of large shelters like the city-run, 258-bed homeless services center on Riverside Street in Portland.

Westbrook city staff and the planning board spent several months developing an ordinance to allow family and youth shelters in single-family homes and duplexes. It would also allow transitional housing and accessory shelters — most likely warming shelters during the winter — in buildings owned by private civic organizations, including churches.

“We are trying to provide a piece of the puzzle of combating homelessness in Maine by reducing the barriers that prevent a private entity from entering our community. We think that’s part of Westbrook’s plan,” said city planner Jennie Franceschi.

If the changes are adopted by the council, all shelters would have to be licensed by the city, and no more than 80 beds in accessory shelters or transitional housing could open citywide.

The order would also create standards for shelter operators – including that they have at least two years of experience operating a shelter or working with an organization that owns one – and establish rules for measures of security. All shelters would need to be located near services like public transportation, which planning board members said was important to effectively supporting the people staying there, and there would be buffer zones to keep incidental shelters and transitional housing schools, daycares and parks. .

“We tried to be very thoughtful and understand that there are impacts that are being felt,” Franceschi said. “We try to mitigate these impacts wherever possible.”

FRUSTRATED BY DISINFORMATION

City officials say they are frustrated by misinformation about the proposed ordinance that has circulated online and on social media and stressed that it is not designed to help any particular group, such as applicants for asylum.

“We’re not talking about a specific population or people who will come to these shelters,” Franceschi said. “We know very clearly that there are homeless people in our community. »

McLellan, of the housing coalition, has tried to talk to people in the community about their concerns, some of which she says are rooted in xenophobia. She said she was giving people details about the proposal and trying to show them that the homeless “are people like us.”

“Whether it’s someone suffering from substance use disorder, someone who doesn’t earn a living wage and can’t afford their rent, or a family seeking asylum who’s trying to start a new life here, they’re all people,” she said. said. “Being homeless is a circumstance, not an identity. Having the resources to support people as they change their circumstances is the only way we can make a dent and change the direction of this crisis.

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