The City of Portland and Maine taxpayers will be footing a nearly $4.5 million annual bill for operating a 179-bed shelter for single asylum-seeking migrants after the nonprofit organization that was contracted to take over services at the shelter dropped out due to lack of funding.
The migrant shelter, located at 166 Riverside Industrial Parkway and owned by Developers Collaborative (DC) Blueberry LLC and DC Management LLC, was funded by a $4.59 million grant from the Maine State Housing Authority and opened in November 2023.
Under the city’s original contract to build the shelter, city staff were to be the primary service provider at 166 Riverside for a period of 18 months, while being shadowed by staff from Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition (MIRC), a nonprofit representing a network of immigrant advocacy nonprofits in Maine.
After 18 months, MIRC staff were supposed to take over and provide meals, staffing and other support services at the shelter for the remainder of the three-year contract.
It was revealed in a memo to the Portland City Council last week that the Council would have to consider removing MIRC as a party to the shelter contract “due to [MIRC’s] inability to secure sufficient funding to continue providing services.”
At Monday’s City Council meeting, Portland City Manager Danielle West provided more details on the exact cost the city will now be taking on, with the nonprofit dropping out of the contract.
West said that the total annual cost to the city to operate the shelter would be $3.27 million, a cost mostly made up of payroll expenses for the 45 full-time city employees that will be staffing the migrant shelter.
In addition to that $3.27 million operating cost, the city will now also be responsible for paying for the meals at the shelter following MIRC dropping out of the contract—a cost of $1.2 million per year, for a total of about $4.5 million annually.
West did not provide much insight into why MIRC was unable to meet the terms of the original contract, merely commenting that in conversations with the nonprofit it became evident that “ultimately, due to a variety of circumstances it wasn’t going to work out.”
Earlier reports indicated that MIRC was unable to reach its promised fundraising goals.
The order to remove MIRC as a party to the contract was passed by the Council unanimously.
The City Manager said that 70 percent of the shelter operating cost will be reimbursed by the state through General Assistance, meaning that taxpayers throughout the State of Maine will also be saddled with the cost of Portland housing and feeding noncitizen migrants at the shelter.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="36838 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=36838">30 Comments
Nice job democrats. You’re fired!
Close the place .
Send the illegals home .
Problem solved .
ship them out, I am not paying for them!
We have to have DOGE get in here fast!
Call Tom Homan and invest in deportation. There goes ALL the general assistance for the rest of the state.
Janet, you are not a competent steward of our finances, safety and security. Shame on you and all your drunk on power DEI minions. Do you ever consider the long term impact of your selfish stupid ideology and ridiculous policies?
Do not shop in Portland!
Shut it down.
I just started 3 weeks ago this web income system that my friend recommended to me and I’ve gotten 2 checks for a total of $9,200… this is the best decision I made in a long time! This extra b5564 cash has changed my life in so many ways, thank you!
Here is I started_______ tinyurl.com/homestar2?/6354
Portland wanted it, let them pay for it or close it down. It would be much cheaper to buy all the illegals a plane ticket home.
Ship all illegal aliens/bogus asylum seekers back to their point of origin !
Janet mills and the democrats have destroyed Maine. They have made Maine an embarrassment. Maine has become extremely expensive to live
Mills and the Democrats are putting the screw to Child Care providers, hospitals, taxpayers etc. Placing a priority on funding immigrants living.on the government
Quit giving them illegals free s***
Hopefully it’s just Portland paying for it. Nobody else wanted it…..
The gravey train has run out. Common sense is here once again. Maine is all about living beyond your means and who cares how we are going to pay it back. I read that maine receives somewhere around 40% in federal funds. Bidenomics
If they are asylum seeking and presumably can not work (legally) since they are in a shelter, why not have them run the shelter themselves? Have a waiver or other legal document created to prevent liability. Would it be possible to have previous asylum seekers who are now employed pay back the system that helped them by funding the meals and actual costs, while labor again is provided by those getting the help?
Like my former tax assessor in Belfast said’Maine has a beer budget and champagne tastes’ Take care of your own first.
So much hate in these comments. You all need to find jesus.
Another socialist strategy by the MeMachussetts comrades to flood the area with illegals.
And WTF is the 1.2 million for meals all about? I’d think these people are capable of making a PB&J or boil an egg. After all, I’m sure they have their GI cell phone for Googling.
No migrants, no problem….easy solution, why can’t our government come up with this?
For one I agree we shouldn’t be paying for something we didn’t agree to pay as citizens I can agree on the fact that I’m living paycheck to paycheck they are taking funding for are adults with intellectual disabilities funding and using it to build and fund immigration shelter. Instead of using the authority general to make shure places like living innovations to other waiver services and punish them for providing services that are not working and abusing the individuals and funding instead they want to take the funding away from the people who need it for stuff like this and fails to run it properly we need a governor who puts there constituents and citizens of Maine first before illegal immigrants or asylum and I agree let the asylum seekers do work to earn there citizenship instead of handing out free money they can work tell them get jobs
Maine Citizens, shouldn’t be paying the bill for illegal immigrants. Janet Mills received billions of dollars during the four years Biden was in office, so she can use this money to pay for her crap. Our roads are bad, our schools are bad, taxes are high, cost of living is high, & citizens cannot afford to pay for the mistakes of Governor Mills!
Close it down, now!
Maine taxpayers should have a vote on something so expensive and nothing to do with or for Mainers.
TAKE YOUR STATE BACK MAINERS!
Uh-oh, spaghetti-O. Maybe it’s time to deport the immigrants unless they here legally and self sufficient.
That’s nothing compared to what tax payers pay for lawsuits owed for our local police misconduct and civil rights violations.
The usual near-sighted comments from magalomaniacs who do not understand how the economy works. I wonder who is going to take underpaid service jobs after asylum seekers are “kicked out”… Also a reminder that most asylum seekers are going through the immigration process and are authorized to work. Stop complaining and show some kindness! The sense of entitlement just for being born in a rich country is disgusting. If some of you got to experience war and homelessness in your life, I am sure you would have a very different point of view. Stop trying to raise yourself above others by crushing them, you are not special.
I live in Maine and DO NOT want my tax money to go to Portland to pay for these freeloaders. Send them back to where they came from. Portland’s problem is not my problem.
We were lied to again. They signed a CONTRACT. HOLD THEM TO IT!
Every single council member, state representative, and Gov. Mills that voted for and approved this funding of illegal immigrants in Maine should be footing this bill. Not the sane citizens of Maine. And yet, come election time, most will be rehired by their constituents.
When they want to refer to us as slaves they call us taxpayers or workers. NEVER ARE WE CALLED CITIZENS except when it comes time to vote – then they are just playing with us. None of them consider us citizens.