The City of Portland resettled nearly 1,000 migrants within its territorial limits in 2024, including over 400 at a shelter for single asylum-seeking seeking migrants that has an operating cost of $4.5 million per year, according to the Portland Health and Human Services’ (HHS) annual report.
According to the Portland HHS 2024 annual report, a total of 279 families, representing 916 individual migrants, were resettled in the city in 2024.
Of those 279 families, 32 were placed into permanent housing, and 159 were placed in the shelter.
The report also indicates that the city conducted six “tenant education” classes for the migrants, reaching 51 clients.
“Our resettlement team is often working similarly to prevention and diversion, really meeting people before they enter into the shelter system, but targeting their services largely to the immigrant population, and helping new Mainers really navigate the system of services that we have,” said Portland HHS Director Maggie McLoughlin at a Tuesday meeting of the City Council’s HHS and Public Safety Committee.
“This is short-term case management, helping link people and families over,” McLoughlin said.
The city’s 179-bed shelter for single asylum-seeking migrants, located at 166 Riverside Industrial Parkway, provided shelter to a total of 439 migrants in 2024, the report states.
Of those over 400 migrants who stayed at the shelter, 167 were placed into housing. The city also provided over 16,900 shuttle rides for the migrants staying at the shelter.
The Riverside migrant shelter was 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 the shelter for its first 18 months of operation, while being shadowed by staff from Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition (MIRC), a nonprofit representing a network of immigrant advocacy nonprofits in Maine.
After that 18 month period, MIRC was supposed to take over providing services for the migrants staying at the shelter.
However, it was revealed in March of this year that the city would have to remove MIRC as a party to the shelter contract “due to [MIRC’s] inability to secure sufficient funding to continue providing services.”
Portland City Manager Danielle West said at a City Council meeting at the time that the annual cost to the city to operate the shelter is about $3.27 million, most of which is due to 45 full-time city employees that are required to staff the migrant shelter.
In addition to that $3.27 million operating cost, the city is also paying an estimated $1.2 million per year for meals at the shelter, totaling about $4.5 million annually.
