Maine State Rep. Colleen Madigan (D-Waterville) has sponsored a bill that would provide the state’s “low-barrier” homeless shelters with a $2.5 million subsidy.
According to the Maine State Housing Authority, a low-barrier shelter is an emergency shelter for the homeless that does not require residents to submit to criminal background checks, to provide identification or income verification, to participate in any mental health or substance use disorder program, or to be sober.
Currently, there are five low-barrier shelters in Maine, all run by private organizations: Hope House Health & Living Center in Bangor, Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter & Services in Waterville, and Portland’s Milestone Recovery, Elena’s Way Wellness Shelter, and Florence House Women’s Shelter.
Rep. Madigan told the Legislature’s Housing Committee during a Tuesday public hearing on her bill, LD 2138, that the state’s five low-barrier shelters operated with a collective deficit of $3.9 million during the 2023 fiscal year.
An amendment to LD 2138 made public Tuesday morning would appropriate $2.5 million from the state’s General Fund to subsidize low-barrier homeless shelters for 2024-2025.
“In fact, almost all of the individuals that use these [low-barrier] shelters come in with active substance use issues, mental illness, or both,” Rep. Madigan told the Housing Committee Tuesday.
Madigan said that 90 to 100 percent of the shelter guests at Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter in Waterville experience addiction, and that at Preble Street’s shelters in Portland, staff respond to overdoses on an average of once every eight days.
[RELATED: Taxpayers Have Spent More Than $114 Million on Portland Homeless Shelters Since 2019…]
“The regularity of drug use and potential for overdose is so high, that some of these shelters have installed alert systems in their bathrooms so staff can better identify and respond to an overdose,” Madigan told the Committee.
Another bill presented in the Tuesday public hearing, Rep. Anne-Marie Mastraccio’s (D-Sanford) LD 2136, would appropriate $10 million from the General Fund to subsidize the state’s homeless shelters, without the specific allocation to low-barrier shelters.
[RELATED: Far-Left Advocacy Group Targeted Homeless People, Ineligible Voters With Election Guides in 2023…]
Rep. Mastraccio told the Housing Committee Tuesday that all of the homeless shelters in the state are operating with deficits, and that many are in danger of closing.
“I know that ongoing funding for anything is a hard sell, because we have so many worthy requests, but this is an emergency,” Mastraccio said.
In the article one related post insert says :Mainers have spent one hundred and fourteen million tax Ayer dollars since 2019. This is incorrect. Government took monies from citizens via taxes and other assorted fees and spent this money regardless if we the people wanted to or not.
Any and all programs such as these should be paid by voluntary contributions. And those who promote these programs should be the first in line to part with THEIR personal monies along with providing space in their residences to house these peoples.
There should be public referendums that decide what we the peoples want to spend our monies on, and not the government who looks at us as only tools only to refill the states bank accounts.
The best part of all of this is we are changing the entire landscape of Maine with your own money. Boot on your face, big disgrace, kickin’ you rhinos all over the place! WE WILL WE WILL REPLACE YOU!
These proposals, from democrat women legislators who’s hearts are in the right place WITH OUR MONEY, just want to ‘help’. Meanwhile, these same women support abortion up to birth, open borders which brings in harmful drugs, bring illegal immigrants to Maine from who knows where, legalize dope and other drugs, keep pornographic books in school libraries, get rid of the electoral college, and praise rank choice voting. I bet they would also ‘propose’ giving out free, clean needles when the homeless come into these ‘shelters’.
A more suitable headline…”MAINE DEMOCRATS SEEK FUNDING FOR (fill in the blank for any stupid money wasting idea)”.
So the government wants to take my money to keep some other person I do not know warm. I will not earn money. Simply will not pay taxes. Then what are you going to do Janet?
@Sandy
When comrade Mills instructed Maine business owners to not allow those who did not wear mask to enter their businesses, it was a violation of constitutional protections such as equal protection, along with civil rights violations. Fortunately I live very close to the New Hampshire North Conway shopping district, and I took ALL my business across state lines. This deprived Maine of tax revenue, and the business owners who complied with this tyranny lost revenue also.
I have not re-patronized these same businesses after the mask crap was dropped. More people need to join ranks in actions such as these with an example being group shopping across state lines where there is no sales tax. If a New Hampshire business delivers across state lines they collect Maine sales tax, however if you as a person pick up those materials no such tax is paid. This can be done in larger groups with personal delivery vehicles acting like a co-op. I purchased windows for my property from Mathew’s Brothers, and other building materials from Hancock Lumber, both are which are Maine based companies, however by purchasing those in New Hampshire I denied Maine the sales tax revenue while still not injuring good Maine businesses, or Maine employees.
My property is now for sale, and I will be relocating to my property in Central America for the winter months, and will resettle in a southern/ southwestern red state for the remainder of the year. If the leftist idiots want this state to make it a clone of every other failed blue state policies then let them have it along will all the expenses of it.
California has had massive lost of state GDP because of flight from their communist policies, and Texas along with Florida where many of those fleeing are relocating, their GDP has increased. Not only are these states now better off economically, but the increase of population has increased their national representation while at the same time reducing those in the states that lost these populations.
Conner will say that this is not a problem because these people will be replaced by imports, however those being imported will not be contributors, but takers which falls onto the remaining population to support which over time has the same end result such as the fall of Venezuela with it Marxist experiment.
So if the leftists want this state, let them have it and nullify their existence by bolstering the population of a red state giving that state a greater voice.
I agree with M L Collucci – we should be allowed to designate our tax dollars for what WE think is best. It has been proven time and again – the Democratic legislators don’t listen to the people in their district. Remember the 650 people who testified AGAINST increasing the abortion laws vs 65 who testified for it? It came down to “What would Planned Parenthood do?” The Dems are out of control. Elections matter and I’m pleased to see we have more Republicans running for offices.
You are right – Boxcar – the Dems want to replace the 65.5 million babies aborted with illegal aliens. I know a journalist who went to the Darien Gap and has been communicating with a married couple who came across the border as singles so they could get twice the stipend. They now live in Florida and make $60,000 per year – under the table – and are sharing how they did it with other illegal immigrants. Wake up Maine!
Maine taxpayers are getting tired of paying for all of the generous hand hours for illegal border crashers and a lot of other groups. Has it ever occurred to these geniuses that if we stop giving them so much that they will likely stop coming here? Any support for illegals should be done by private charities like it always done in the past. Apparently Janet and the Legislature aren’t happy that we are only the third highest taxed state, they clearly want us to be the most highly taxed state.