Bangor council, state legislators talk homelessness, housing and budget

Bangor city councilors met with their state legislative delegation at a special workshop to compare priorities for the coming year. Councilors named homelessness, housing and regional collaboration as their top three tentative priorities, while legislators described bills on rental registries, rental assistance and harm reduction and urged the city to weigh in on the state budget.

Key points

• Councilor Carolyn Fish presented the council's tentative top priorities from a December goal-setting session: a comprehensive plan to address homelessness, continued work on housing needs, and a more regional, collaborative approach to shared problems.
• Public health director Jen Gunderman told the council that roughly 300 people are experiencing homelessness in Bangor, a figure drawn from the HMIS database and the annual point-in-time count, and said warming centers are seeing about 80 to 85 people a night.
• Councilor Wayne Mallar questioned what the city received for the $400,000 it gave the United Way to coordinate nonprofits on homelessness, and City Manager Carollynn Lear said she would look into the contract.
• Rep. Ambureen Rana described LD 1806, a rental registry bill she is sponsoring, as a simple checkbox for businesses renewing with the Secretary of State, and said it targets large corporate landlords rather than small landlords.
• Rana also defended LD 847, which she said closes a loophole and bars landlords from denying housing based solely on a tenant's form of rental payment, while Councilor Mallar and others asked whether rental history could still be considered.
• Sen. Joe Baldacci said this session will bring fewer new bills and more carryovers, and encouraged the council to focus its lobbying on the supplemental budget, including a warehouse bond for Bangor and a Life Flight funding bill he would like to see combined.
• Councilor Susan Faloon pitched a concept for a statewide homelessness reimbursement and accountability program modeled on a California effort, and passed out copies for the delegation.
• Councilor Daniel Carson and others raised the need for a standing communication channel between the council and the delegation, and Rep. Amy Roeder suggested councilors subscribe to legislative committee email lists to track bills.

Next steps

• City Manager Carollynn Lear said she would follow up on the city's $400,000 contract with the United Way regarding homelessness coordination.
• Councilors and legislators agreed to explore forming a committee or another regular channel to share bill and budget information.
• Councilor Faloon's statewide homelessness reimbursement proposal will be shared for further discussion, possibly through a council subcommittee.
• Legislators encouraged the city to contact the governor's office and the Appropriations Committee about budget and bond items, including the warehouse and Life Flight proposals.

Read the full transcript