Portland City Council voted Monday night to move forward with a plan to convert an existing building in the Riverton neighborhood into a new 180-bed homeless shelter for asylum seekers.
The company Developers Collaborative will purchase, renovate, and furnish the building using $4.5 million in state funding from the emergency housing and energy bill passed earlier this year. The shelter will be staffed initially by the city, with the goal of handing off day-to-day operations to the Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition after 18 months.
Mayor Kate Snyder said opening a new shelter aimed at supporting asylum seekers will free up beds at the city's Homeless Services Center for people currently living in tents across the city, two groups she said have distinct needs.
"Part of what we have before us tonight is getting the right services to the right people in the right place," she said. "We really want to align the services with the population that needs those services."
Several Riverton residents testified in opposition to the proposal, saying they were not given enough information ahead of time and objecting to the placement of a second homeless shelter in their neighborhood.
Kevin Bunker, who owns Developers Collaborative, said the swift timeline for approving the project stems from a state requirement that projects be operational this year in order to qualify for funding from the emergency housing bill.
"The grant requires that these shelters be open for this coming winter," Bunker said. "So everything is backing into how much construction time it takes to get this thing ready for the winter, or we can't accept the money."
More than 1,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Portland since January, primarily from Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
