Like many cities in Maine grappling with housing shortages, rising housing costs, and a lack of infrastructure to truly address homelessness, Lewiston is looking at potential solutions. We are asking ourselves, what have we learned from the COVID-19 pandemic? Who are we as a city? What is possible here?
Arthur Murray III, left, Glenn Norraik, hidden under blankets, and Christian Laroche spend an afternoon sheltered by a storefront on Lisbon Street in Lewiston. The three men are homeless and spent the night on the street. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal
Unfortunately, Lewiston’s response is currently heading in the wrong direction. At the next Lewiston City Council meeting, councilors will vote on whether to institute a six-month moratorium on new low-barrier shelters. The issues with this misguided moratorium are extensive, but one thing is clear: the moratorium is designed to prevent progress toward addressing homelessness in Lewiston.
Moratorium supporters, when faced with overwhelming opposition from the citizens they were elected to represent, have continued to run away from developing solutions to solve our homeless challenges in Lewiston. Tuesday’s vote will be on watered down language that seems to be a moratorium for the sake of a moratorium.
This moratorium is a waste of time. It doesn’t bring the right resources or perspectives to the table. It does not move us forward – it keeps us treading water as the waves get higher.
Our city’s current approach to addressing homelessness and helping the unhoused is severely lacking. Lewiston’s homeless shelters cannot keep up with the demand for services. We don’t have state or federally funded shelters, which means Lewiston doesn’t fully participate in data counts. As a result, we are left to guess at the true extent of the homelessness in our community.
The practical impact of this moratorium and the policy perspectives that have led us here is people without homes are sleeping in cemeteries. Folks who are unhoused are sleeping in alcoves of downtown businesses. Families sleep in tents or in cars. People who just need a stable place to get back on their feet are left to carry all they own on their backs.
Anyone who supports this moratorium is saying, at the very least, that our current approach is adequate to address our challenges. I disagree. It is not acceptable.
Those who support the moratorium want the state and federal government to step in and help. I agree. We need support because we can’t fund this on our own. However, state and federal money doesn’t just arrive on our doorstep – we have to show we are willing to take this problem seriously. State and federal interventions do not abdicate our responsibility as a municipality.
This is not who we are as a city. I ran to be Lewiston’s mayor because I believe in moving Lewiston forward. And moving Lewiston forward means nobody gets left behind.
As I noted when I established Lewiston’s Mayoral Ad Hoc Shelter Committee, our community’s goal must be to make homelessness brief and rare. That is possible with real investment in services. That is possible when we bring experts to the table who can work with us. It is possible when we look at combining homeless services with housing people.
That is possible when we face our challenges head on and move Lewiston forward.
A moratorium on shelter services is just running away and pretending homelessness doesn’t exist. We must work together to make sure this moratorium fails.
Lewiston is a place where people persevere. We work hard against the odds. We don’t run away when times get tough. Most importantly, we have heart. And we care enough to make sure our most vulnerable neighbors don’t get left behind. It’s time to show up and be a community that moves forward together.
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