City officials are addressing the issue of increased crime in temporary housing as they continue to receive complaints from the community.  Brianna Soukup photo/Press Herald

SOUTH PORTLAND — City officials are addressing the issue of increased crime in temporary housing as they continue to receive complaints from the community. 

City Manager Scott Morelli said in a letter dated Feb. 11 there has been a dramatic increase in calls for police, fire and EMS to four hotels. The four hotels including Days Inn, Comfort Inn, Quality Inn and Howard Johnson have been housing homeless and asylum seekers since the beginning of the pandemic. 

Nearby residents and businesses have complained about theft, drug use, trespassing, harassment and other safety concerns. 

The city sent out a letter to South Portland businesses and residents that has stated that there will be a virtual meeting held on Feb. 25 with representatives from the hotels and the housing groups connected to them.

MaineHousing helps fund the Days Inn and Comfort Inn and Preble Street provides 400 a meals a day to the Days Inn. Only certain individuals and businesses near the hotels will attend the meeting. It was not open to the public. The meeting is to discuss concerns, experiences and to produce solutions to any problems that have been identified.  

Morelli declined to comment further regarding the issue in advance of the meeting. South Portland Police Chief Daniel Ahern has stated that they will try to produce a collaborative plan on how to resolve the ongoing issues. Ahern declined to comment on the number of police calls made to the hotels and business, but has said there has been an increase. 

“We have certainly seen an increase in calls for service there but that’s not just about crimes, that’s just a large group of people move into a certain area and that is going to increase call volume for us,” Ahern said. “It will always be our policy and procedure to respond to all of those calls and to treat everyone with dignity and respect and were going to address some of their concerns at the meeting on Friday.”

In 2019, a similar issue was happening, there had been numerous calls to the hotels, but it has increased since then with a rise in drug arrests, trespassing and suspicious activity.   It is expected that the hotels will be used as a temporary shelter for at least another year. 

According to news release from the city of South Portland, “Even when the pandemic subsides and a new shelter in Portland becomes operational in early 2023, there likely will still be hundreds of families and individuals in need of shelter.”