Willard Beach in South Portland. Maxen Ryder

The Howard Johnson hotel in South Portland will serve as a temporary housing shelter after a vote by the South Portland City Council in a special meeting on June 27. MaineHousing is authorized to operate the transitional housing facility for one year through June 30, 2024.

The decision comes after the city set a June 30 deadline in April for hotels to cease operating as shelters.

The state of Maine proposed the agreement to the city earlier in the month. The hotel will shelter 367 people, 165 of whom are children. The people will be moved from six hotels throughout South Portland.

The Howard Johnson hotel in South Portland will serve as a temporary housing shelter after a vote by the South Portland City Council in a special meeting on June 27. Above, Christopher Valentim Fonseca Andre, 3, plays outside of Howard Johnson Hotel in South Portland, in 2022 where his family was staying. Derek Davis photo/Press Herald

The state will pay the cost of housing the individuals and families. In addition, the state will fund Catholic Charities to provide social services, and reimburse General Assistance costs the residents may require up to $65,000. The state will also pay $135,000 if needed to reimburse South Portland for ambulance calls and to hire a temporary health specialist. The agreement does not allow any new families or individuals to be placed at the hotel, even if residents leave before the shelter’s end date. The agreement parallels a similar one the state has made with Portland that uses a hotel in Saco.

“On behalf of Preble Street, I’m here tonight to support the Howard Johnson hotel being used as a shelter for unhoused asylee families,” said Terence Miller, advocacy director at Preble Street during public comment. “Presently, we are witnessing the shelter system stretched to its limits. We ask that you add the Howard Johnson hotel, based on the successful Saco hotel model, as an additional solution to this shelter crisis. By allowing asylum seeking families to utilize the Howard Johnson hotel for the next year, we will be providing them with the opportunity to stay safely sheltered. Asylees will receive the vital support and services needed to successfully transition into South Portland and Maine civil society.”

The council voted 6-1 in approval, with councilor Richard Matthews voting against it. Matthews expressed frustration with the state’s long response time in giving assistance. South Portland hotels have been sheltering unhoused people since 2020 when the pandemic restricted space at shelters. The housing has put a strain on local emergency and social services. The city has given the hotels multiple deadline extensions to cease shelter operations so as not to unhouse residents.

The council discussed the humanitarian and economic aspects of the decision.

“To me it really comes down to what one of our citizens said, that is a humanitarian vote, not a political vote,” said councilor Jocelyn Leighton. “This is about human beings needing help.”

Mayor Katherine Lewis pointed out that the agreement would allow the state’s funding to benefit the local community, and that she would rather do that than “have all of my tax dollars go outside of South Portland and not be helping some of the problems that we have right here.”

“We talk about ‘What is the burden on the city going to be in the next year if we go through with this agreement?’” Lewis said. “Well, I’m pretty worried about what the burden on the city is going to be if we don’t go through with this agreement. Because we will have 400 people living in the woods or on the sidewalks or in parking lots or who knows where, and we know that those requests for general assistance and the requests for school services will remain with that population.”

Councilor Misha Pride discussed the agreement as a path for improvement in the community.

“Worst case scenario, we are here again in a year, and maybe more solutions have presented themselves,” he said. “But I think it’s more likely that if we are back here in a year, because of the work of Catholic Charities and other organizations that they bring in to help, because of those wraparound services, we’re back here in a year but with fewer families (in need of shelter). With more families that have found permanent housing.”

“And so I think it’s sort of a win-win solution, or at least a no-lose situation, where we are not spending more money as a municipality, and these families can stay here. These families are not cattle to be easily moved from municipality to municipality. Some of these families have got roots here, many of the school children have friends here, have now sort of figured out how to navigate our community well.”

Councilor Deqa Dhalac said, “this doesn’t have anything to do with politics, this is all to do with human rights, and how we are really taking care of people in our community. We can say all we want how we have a welcoming community, but if we do not put that in action, that is nothing, truthfully. So I am in 100 percent in support of this.”

Another month is expected to complete the transfer of residents from the various hotels to the Howard Johnson hotel.