Thursday night's bitter cold weather prompted Portland to open its Winter Warming Shelter for unhoused residents. The city ran two shuttle buses to bring 52 people to the warming space, which can serve 60 people.
Tuesday's snow storm reportedly caused some of the city's unhoused population to scramble to find a warm place to go.
City spokesperson Jessica Grondin said Tuesday's weather didn't meet the city's threshold to open the warming space: a temperature of 15 degrees or 10 inches of snow. Grondin said the city worked with community partners to come up with those numbers.
"We have the discretion to open it more, so there will be times as we see how long the funding will get us through the winter that we may activate it more than what's based on the plan but there has to be a plan in place based on the funding we have," Grondin said.
She said on Tuesday there were 15 open beds at the city's homeless shelter and outreach workers convinced several unhoused residents to fill those beds.
There has been criticism that the warming shelter is too far from downtown Portland, according to Grondin.
"We were the only entity [in Portland] to put in for state funding this winter because we realized no one was going to. I think we realize it's not the ideal space but at least there is a space this winter," Grondin said.
The state allocated $400,000 to Portland for the warming shelter that Grondin said will support 45-50 nights of operation. Portland was one of 12 communities around the state that was awarded funding for warming spaces.
Portland's winter warming shelter will be open Friday night, Dec. 4 and Monday night, Dec. 8 as well.
New Beginning's winter warming space at 436 Main St. in Lewiston is open 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., seven days a week from Nov. 15 to April 30, but will open earlier if the temperature is 20 degrees or lower. It receives state funding.
Lewiston's Alter L/A warming center, which opened Monday, has no temperature threshold to meet. It operates 24/7.
Additional warming centers can be found on the Maine Emergency Management Agency website.
