Some 20 people hunkered down in whatever wraps they had, between the sidewalk and the brick wall of a building on a 20-degree night.

Other years, Oxford Street Shelter has taken in homeless people. Overflow of some 50 to 70 persons was accommodated at Preble Street. But then came Covid 19. For a while, overflow numbers of people were housed at the Expo, but that ended. And winter has come.

Preble Street staff evaluated the situation and proposed a significant protected shelter with 40 beds and support counseling. It needs the Portland Planning Board to approve a conditional use permit.

Why has this become a hold to placement for several months? Why is the Planning Board schedule a higher priority than warm shelter for 40 people in a location that has been housing 70 without any Planning Board involvement?

Suddenly, everything – from where food is unloaded to how high will be the fence around the patio – has become a significant criteria to whether people can be housed here.

An agency that Portland calls a “partner” in the Comprehensive Plan, is suddenly blocked from being a partner, and sleeping in the cold is less important than who inspects the property for unwanted trash.

On Tuesday, I saw people trying to be secure while sleeping on the street. Today another person died.

The Portland Planning Board can take all winter on minutia. But let people have shelter now.

Grace Braley
Portland