Attendees pack into the Lewiston City Council meeting March 15, 2022, at City Hall to weigh in on a proposed moratorium on homeless shelters in the city. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Maine’s Legislature may prevent municipalities from banning homeless shelters.

“During a time when housing is scarce and unhoused Mainers continue to struggle, we must pursue solutions that ensure our community members have a warm, safe place to rest at night,” said state Rep. Kristen Cloutier, a Lewiston Democrat who supports the measure.

Cloutier said that prohibiting homeless shelters, like the six-month moratorium Lewiston imposed three years ago, “not only fails to address the problem but also places pressure on surrounding cities and towns to house those who cannot find shelter.”

The bill, which is before the State and Local Government Committee, proposes to add a single sentence to state statutes: “A municipality may not enact or enforce an ordinance that prohibits the creation or operation of a homeless shelter.”

At a public hearing this week, lawmakers heard from supporters who called on them to endorse the proposal. The committee has yet to make a decision on whether to back it.

But some legislators are skeptical.

One of them — State Rep. Randy Greenwood, a Wales Republican — called the bill well intentioned but questioned whether it would undermine local control.

Rebecca Graham, an advocate for the Maine Municipal Association, said the bill as written is too restrictive. Towns and cities need to make sure that facilities meet legal standards, including accessibility and public safety codes.

However, attorney Alicia Rea, a former Lewiston city councilor and a policy fellow for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, said the state “lacks enough shelters” for a homeless population of nearly 2,700. She said the shortage increases the pressure on jails, prisons, law enforcement agencies and hospitals.

Plus, she said, “a lack of shelters could mean unconstitutional deprivations of the civil rights and civil liberties of unhoused people forced to live outside.”

Annika Moore, the advocacy team leader for Portland’s Preble Street, said that “Maine is experiencing a crisis-level shortage of shelter and housing.”

In Portland in January, for example, Moore said that “almost every bed was filled every night for the entire month” at its shelter.

“Most other shelters across the state are also close to or at capacity,” she added.

“Shelters are equivalent to emergency rooms for people experiencing homelessness, and when people have nowhere safe to go, emergency shelter should always be an option,” Moore said.

“With beds filling up though, it is becoming increasingly common for shelters to have to turn people away, even on the coldest or rainiest of nights,” she said.

Moore said the bill — which is similar to one that failed to win approval last year —  “will help ensure that emergency shelters are an option for individuals in municipalities across the state. At a time when housing options are limited and more people are becoming unhoused, we must create emergency shelters in neighborhoods across Maine.”

State Rep. Grayson Lookner, a Portland Democrat, said, “My city has been home to sprawling encampments, and I routinely see unhoused neighbors camping in all seasons on public lands. Every day, I am reminded of how the lack of resources and investment in housing contributes to the crisis in housing and homelessness that has been plaguing our state for too long.”

He told the panel he would like to see “every town just do a little bit” because people who are struggling do better with support from their own community.

“This is really about neighbors helping neighbors,” Lookner said. “We can prevent our neighbors from dying.”