AUGUSTA — City officials are considering paying “ambassadors” to monitor the downtown area, where merchants have expressed concerns that homeless people cause problems and make them and their customers feel unsafe.
The proposal could be modeled after a fairly new Safety Hospitality Ambassadors program in Bangor, where about a half-dozen employees of a private firm, at a cost of more than $400,000 a year, are on the city’s streets overnight. They help visitors find their way and do some cleaning, but also work to address problems that may come up with troublemakers or homeless people by intervening, helping them find services or, if law enforcement is needed, calling the police.
Some councilors said a smaller version of such a program, scaled down for Augusta’s smaller downtown, could help alleviate safety concerns by having someone, other than a police officer, who can build relationships and work out problems before they materialize.
“It interests me because I think the more individuals and service providers, individuals who have some compassion, who are understanding of the situation, and get to know people downtown, the better off we really are,” said At-Large Councilor Annalee Morris-Polley. “I know we’ve allocated some finances to the downtown (for police patrols). So maybe shifting that, looking at that to see if it’s better used in the ambassador program. It would be a different way to spend the funds they need down there. Because they do need a little something more down there, I think.”
Others, however, questioned whether that would be the best way to spend limited funds, which might be better spent creating a year-round homeless shelter where people who are homeless could live and not bother anyone. Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Judkins noted a key recommendation of a recent report issued by the Augusta Task Force on Homelessness was to create a low-barrier, year-round homeless shelter.
“We spent tens of thousands of dollars on a study that said what we really need is a low barrier shelter, and we’re looking at spending money in another direction,” Judkins said when councilors discussed the ambassadors proposal at their July 24 meeting. “If we focus on these people that need homes, that need security, that will take them off the street down there, and help the downtown. You can kill two birds with one stone. I brought up doing something before, when they presented the study, and I got crickets (chirping) here. So there’s your public-private partnership. Let’s find a building, or a piece of land, and get that low-barrier shelter up and running, then let a private entity run it.”
Police Chief Kevin Lully said Bangor officials said the ambassadors program there is overseen by the city’s economic development office, not the police department, though police do partner and stay in communication with ambassadors while they work. He said a similar program also recently began in Portland, though Lully didn’t yet have information on the program there.
In Bangor, the firm Streetplus provides about a half-dozen ambassadors who spend the overnight hours, from 4 p.m. to 6 a.m., in downtown Bangor. Lully said the program cost between $400,000 and $450,000 a year, and was funded by city tax increment financing funds and a contribution from the Bangor Downtown Partnership, which he said is similar to the Augusta Downtown Alliance.
Lully said increased downtown police patrols in Augusta funded directly by American Rescue Plan Act funds have ceased because that grant money ran out. He said currently the department’s two school resource officers are spending time patrolling downtown while school is out. And the city budget does have funding for extra patrols downtown.
Ward 4 Councilor Eric Lind said the city should do a needs assessment to see what downtown business owners and residents see as the main needs a program might address.
City Manager Jared Mills said he and city staff would further research the program and other options and bring that information back for councilors to consider.
