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Bangor city officials propose delaying encampment closure deadline

More than 70 people live in Bangor's largest homeless encampment, known as Tent City, located behind the Hope House Health and Living Center.
Linda Coan O'Kresik
/
via BDN
More than 70 people live in Bangor's largest homeless encampment, known as Tent City, located behind the Hope House Health and Living Center.

Bangor city officials are looking to postpone the deadline to close the city's largest homeless encampment behind Hope House Health and Living Center.

In a memo to the city council, city manager Debbie Laurie proposes delaying the Dec. 31 deadline to Feb. 28. Laurie said the opening of Theresa's Place, a permanent 41-unit housing project, is a key component in moving people out of the encampment, but that renovation has been delayed.

Doug Dunbar, with Penobscot County Cares, said the delay is a positive development, but any deadline is unnecessary.

"There really doesn't need to be an artificial deadline like that," he said. "We just need to keep focusing our attention. We need to keep up the sense of urgency. We need to continue to collaborate more than we have before, and we can work through this."

City officials have said they want to close the encampment because of an increase in criminal activity and violence.

But Dunbar said criminal activity isn't any worse than it's been in the past- and if it's such a concern, the city should have addressed the problem years earlier.

He said that breaking up the encampment forces people to scatter across the city, losing their community and forcing them into more dangerous situations. Instead, the city should continue to work to move people into more stable housing situations, Dunbar said.

"Keep working until everybody's offered appropriate housing- with supportive services if needed," he said. "Keep the process going. Let this be the beginning of a new way forward of greater collaboration and more urgency."

The city council will vote on the change at a meeting Monday.

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Kaitlyn Budion is Maine Public’s Bangor correspondent, joining the reporting team after several years working in print journalism.