from The Epoch Times:
The number of homeless people in Maine more than doubled from 2021 to 2022, according to the Maine Housing Authority.
PORTLAND, Maine—For 36-year-old Sheena, every day has been a struggle since she and her husband wound up homeless on the streets of Portland—Maine’s largest city on the Atlantic coastline—five months ago.
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The couple had been “kicked out” of a motel after two years, though they “never once got in trouble,” she said.
Suddenly, they had nowhere else to go.
On Dec. 16, 2023, the couple were living in a pitched tent in the city’s largest homeless campsite near the Casco Bay Bridge in Harbor View Memorial Park.
Sheena said she blames the high cost of rent and limited affordable housing for the rapid growth of homeless encampments throughout the city.
She also feels the city gives “first priority” to newly arrived illegal immigrants, which “makes it even worse” for the unsheltered homeless population.
“I am tired,” said Sheena, who did not want her last name used, sniffling from a head cold in the frigid morning air. “I’ve been moving for the last two days, trying to build up my tent. I haven’t really slept much.”
There were more than 70 tents packed into the Harbor View campsite along with piles of bicycles, trash, and debris before the city ordered the encampment shut down on Jan. 2.
The action was twice postponed in December due to bad weather and a council vote to delay the action.
