WATERVILLE — Gregg Perkins has experienced so many problems at his professional building on College Avenue that he has had to make costly upgrades to his lighting system and install security cameras outside.

“Tenants have dealt with panhandling,” Perkins said. “There’s been soliciting. I got solicited from a person asking if I was looking for a girl. I’ve had people sleeping in my building. I’ve had drug use in my building. Tenants have found needles there.”

Perkins, a real estate broker, owns and manages 32 College Ave., adjacent to the Waterville Area Soup Kitchen. His tenants include doctors, counselors and social service agencies.

He is one of several downtown business owners who say customers, tenants and employees have been frightened when accosted and asked for money as they enter and leave their workplaces. They worry about people’s safety and the future of the downtown.

But Waterville has committed itself to helping its unhoused residents as well. As homelessness surges across the country, the city finds itself struggling like many other communities, including Augusta, to balance that commitment with people’s need to feel safe.

Tom Nale Sr., a former Waterville mayor and district court judge, owns the downtown building at 99 Main St. that years ago housed the Al Corey Music Center. He said the rear door was broken into recently and there was clear evidence of squatters.

“The police did a sweep of the building and cautioned me that when cleaning things up: Be careful as there are needles in the area,” Nale said.

Bill Mitchell, who owns many properties in the city, said unauthorized people have been found in his building at 18 Common St. and police had to be called. There have been similar issues around 21 College Ave., a building Mitchell owns that formerly was called The Elm and now houses Day’s Jewelry corporate offices. It is across the street from Perkins’ building.

Perkins, Nale and Mitchell emphasize that they support charitable organizations and are sympathetic to the needs of people who are homeless and in poverty. They say that it’s not only people who are homeless committing crimes.

But they say there has to be a balance between addressing the needs of homeless people and those of businesses and residents in a city that is working hard to invest in downtown revitalization and economic development.

One day last summer on a weekend, Perkins was watching his surveillance cameras and observed six different incidents at his building involving drug use, trespassing and other issues.

“I just kept calling the police,” he recalled. “It forces us all to tie up a lot of resources. I’ve been very thankful to Chief Bill Bonney and the Waterville PD. They’ve been very responsive and if I’ve got a problem, they try to jump right on it.”

Nale said the incidents of vandalism, trespassing and assault in the city are frustrating and affect businesses, residents and visitors to the city.

“It is my hope that the mayor and City Council recognizes that these issues affect the safety of our citizens and the economic health of our downtown,” he said. “In addressing those concerns there needs to be a balance in helping those in need, with the understanding that we can only help so many.”

Nale said he not only sympathizes with those in need, he empathizes with them as well. His family dates back to 1910 at Head of Falls, where poverty was the norm. That area is just yards from where many homeless people now spend time and have lived in tents.

“It is my hope that the city and concerned citizens can work together to strike the right balance and achieve equity in doing so,” Nale said. “It is times like this that our collective weaknesses will be exposed or our strengths will be discovered.”

SEEKING SOLUTIONS

Mitchell and other taxpayers plan to ask the City Council to approve a six-month pause on any expansion of the Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter on Colby Street and the nearby soup kitchen, and authorize City Manager Bryan Kaenrath to create a task force to study and assess the extent of homelessness and food insecurity in the city. That panel would then make recommendations to the council.

“The objective is to encourage all stakeholders to work together to build community spirit, positive synergies and collaboration that supports economic development, affordable and market-rate housing, public safety, improving the school system, rebuilding infrastructure and providing essential services to people from Waterville or with roots to Waterville,” Mitchell said.

“The community used a similar approach when creating the Alfond Youth & Community Center, Waterville Creates, and the visioning process for downtown Waterville’s revitalization. Look at the success of those projects. Why wouldn’t we use a similar approach in addressing the needs of our most needy and vulnerable residents?”

Mitchell said the homeless shelter is seeking to purchase the Grondin’s Certified Cleaners building at 259 Main St. to expand its number of beds and services. But, he said, more work needs to be done to determine if that is the most appropriate location.

Katie Spencer White, CEO of the homeless shelter, said the shelter received a $700,000 grant from MaineHousing to acquire and rehabilitate a space, but could not confirm if Grondin’s is one of the sites being considered.

However, Carla Caron, president of the board of directors for the soup kitchen, confirmed the location is being considered.

White said the goal is to establish 20 beds in a new location for seniors and people who are sober, along with case management services. City ordinance prohibits homeless shelters downtown, from College Avenue to Spring Street, but a site serving the homeless must be within walking distance of services, she said.

The current shelter is designed for only 50 people and officials have for two years been consistent and transparent about seeking another location and have asked city officials where they think another shelter would be appropriate, according to White.

That will also relieve some of the stress at the Colby Street shelter, she said. The additional shelter will have the same “good-neighbor” policy as the existing one and will be designed to fit into the community, according to White.

“We actually want to enhance the downtown area,” she said. “We want to be perceived as good for business.”

Both White and Kaenrath said a task force already is in place that meets monthly at the homeless shelter to discuss needs and issues and is regularly attended by people such as Kaenrath, Bonney and fire Chief Jason Frost, Kennebec Behavioral Health, Kennebec Valley Community Action Program and others. White said anyone who’s interested is welcome to attend.

“We want to be able to have productive conversations,” she said. “We’re in the business of solving problems.”

THE CITY RESPONDS

Waterville has been proactive in trying to alleviate issues caused by homelessness, Kaenrath, the city manager, said.

The city partnered with the homeless shelter to help 70 to 80 people living in encampments at Head of Falls to connect with services and find places to live, Kaenrath said. That was about 1 1/2 years ago, and now there are no encampments there.

“We have done a great job, I think, of not having encampments any more, but doing it in a progressive, proactive way,” he said. “We cleaned out that whole area.”

The city continues to experience problems cited by business people and others, Kaenrath said, and officials are meeting monthly with shelter officials and others to address those issues and strike a balance between the needs of all sides.

“It’s something we’re definitely struggling with,” he said. “I think the city has been proactive in keeping a lid on it, but some businesses and residents don’t feel safe downtown.”

Kaenrath and Bonney said there were just under 800 calls for emergency service at Head of Falls in 2023 for incidents such as drug overdoses, assault, prostitution and sexual assault, which Kaenrath said was part of the justification for officials’ deciding to prohibit encampments.

“The conditions they were living in down there were just horrible,” Kaenrath said.

Still, there are 25 to 27 unhoused people in the city who refuse to accept help, and they continue to live outdoors, Kaenrath and Bonney said.

This year through Oct. 10, those same people, they said, were the subject of more than 900 calls to the police and fire departments for reports of criminal trespass, panhandling, criminal mischief and assault.

The calls caused a big strain on public safety, Kaenrath said.

As of Oct. 1 this year, police received 401 calls from residents and businesses in the area around the soup kitchen, according to Bonney. This fall, police had to add 16 hours of overtime per week to help manage those issues, he said.

Meanwhile, the police department’s community resource officer, Rob Bouley, and community outreach coordinator, Todd Stevens, regularly respond to calls to try to help people get the help they need with housing, mental illness and substance use disorder.

“We do believe in providing empathetic and compassionate services to those in need,” Bonney said, “but we want people to feel safe and for businesses to thrive, and sometimes striking that balance is difficult.”

The fire department’s paramedicine program also helps homeless people with medical treatment in the field, which helps alleviate frequent returns to hospitals.

ADVOCATING FOR THE HOMELESS

The soup kitchen serves 350-425 meals a day, Caron said. As of Nov. 15, there were 22-26 people living at the shelter; in the winter, that grows to 75-80, with “surge nights” reaching more than 90, according to White.

They both say most of the people who live at the homeless shelter and eat at the soup kitchen are from Waterville, contrary to what some people may have heard.

“I’m not seeing people from other towns in our space,” Caron said. “I am seeing more need. I’m seeing people who can’t make ends meet and they need food and they need help with food. The increase is from people in Waterville, not Augusta or Bangor. They have no way to get here.”

Bonney said he could not speak to numbers, but police “deal with a fair number of people who aren’t from Waterville.”

Caron said the soup kitchen may apply for a $2 million grant to expand its space or to buy a building and create added space for service providers. That will not happen right away, she said. Before officials can apply for the money, a feasibility study must be done by professionals, and ongoing work is underway to work on a strategic plan, according to Caron.

She said many people struggling have mental illnesses, substance use disorder is at an all-time high, and the way to help people is by providing them stability.

If the feasibility study shows it is not in the soup kitchen’s or community’s best interest to keep the kitchen where it is and expand there, Caron said she is open to suggestions.

“We need our business community’s help in doing that,” she said. “I understand the plight of businesses. I understand their frustration. We need to have the leaders and the business community around the table with social service providers and come up with a concrete solution to problems. We need to have better communication with one another, and respectful dialogue.”

Perkins agrees that solutions should come from all sides.

“We need everybody’s perspective and a collaborate and a collaborative approach to make this work,” he said. “That’s why the pause and assess idea is being proposed in the first place.”

Tensions have been high recently between some who criticize business people for raising issues involving homeless people downtown, and the business owners trying to find solutions. One city councilor, Rien Finch, D-Ward 6, advises that people work together.

“Homelessness is a national issue and cities all over the country are struggling with how to handle it,” Finch said. “This is not just a Waterville problem. I hope Waterville can take a step back from the emotionally-charged language and focus on facts and concrete steps we can take as a city to help all of our citizens.”

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