Earlier this week, as temperatures dropped below freezing throughout Portland, more than 600 unhoused people stayed warm, safe and sheltered thanks to the city of Portland and Preble Street. As the two largest emergency shelter providers in Maine, we are committed to this critical work and proud to do it alongside one another.

However, at a time when our shelters are needed more than ever, we are gravely concerned about a proposed change in the state of Maine’s General Assistance (GA) program that would significantly erode our ability to provide these life-saving services. Specifically, Rule #26, proposed by Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services, would slash reimbursement of local emergency shelter expenses and weaken Maine’s emergency shelter network, endangering vital social services and putting vulnerable people at risk.

Rule #26, which had a public hearing last week, falsely equates the cost of operating an emergency shelter with the operating expenses of a zero-bedroom efficiency apartment. As you can imagine, these are vastly different facilities with very different expenses. An emergency shelter costs far more to run, due to the lease of a facility, all-inclusive utilities, contractual services, facility maintenance, janitorial supplies and laundry services for bedding. These costs are in addition to the salaries for professional staff who help people in shelters achieve stability and move forward in their lives.

If approved, Rule #26 would cause a substantial loss in anticipated shelter revenue and exacerbate the financial challenges of emergency shelter providers throughout the state. The city of Portland alone would lose $4.4 million in reimbursement annually, threatening the availability of shelter and undermining the city’s recent shelter expansion, which ensures dozens of people can sleep indoors instead of on sidewalks and in doorways each night.

Unsheltered homelessness and the growth of tent encampments in Maine started with former Governor Paul LePage’s 2014 attack on the safety net system for poor and homeless Mainers. That year, LePage shifted more of the financial burden of General Assistance implementation onto cities and towns by reducing state reimbursement from 90% to 70%. Before this GA policy change, Maine was proud to be among the states with the least number of unsheltered individuals in the nation, and seeing someone sleep outside in Portland was rare.

We are acutely aware of the high cost of addressing homelessness and the financial burden of Maine’s GA mandate on the state, local municipalities and nonprofit organizations. However, to withdraw support for emergency shelters to such a degree, with no meaningful warning and no legislative review, would not only conflict with state statute, but would jeopardize our and others’ ability to serve Mainers who have nowhere else to turn.

The city of Portland and Preble Street have been longtime, dedicated partners in serving Mainers experiencing homelessness and remain committed to these services. Together, we each operate three emergency shelters within city limits and, collectively, have the capacity to shelter more than 600 people each night, providing nearly 243,000 bed nights each year.

To ensure that the city of Portland and Preble Street can continue to keep 600 unhoused people warm and sheltered each night, we urge Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services to either reject Rule #26 outright or, in acknowledgement of its substantial financial impact, seek the Legislature’s review and approval as part of the major substantive rule-making process.

GA changes need to support shelters, not harm them. The impacts of Rule #26 would be detrimental to shelter providers in Maine at a time when unsheltered homelessness is a statewide crisis.