Bangor Homelessness Committee Elects Officers, Discusses Public Input Strategy

The City of Bangor Advisory Committee on Homelessness held its second meeting to elect leadership and establish protocols for gathering public feedback. Committee members voted to appoint Teal Vasquez as chair, Jason Goodrich as vice chair, and Amy West as secretary. The group also reviewed initial data on homelessness and agreed to hold a dedicated public comment session at their next meeting.

Key points

• Teal Vasquez was elected chair, Jason Goodrich was elected vice chair, and Amy West was elected secretary by unanimous or near-unanimous vote.
• The committee decided to hold a specific public comment meeting at their next scheduled session, with a proposed duration of up to 90 minutes for public input.
• City Manager Carolyn Lear reported that an RFP for a facilitator was posted and closes on July 29, with the goal of selecting a facilitator by the next meeting.
• Members discussed the challenges of data collection, noting that different agencies use varying definitions of homelessness which complicates direct comparisons.
• Bruce Hews presented data from the Bangor Community Action Team (BCAT) regarding non-emergent calls and diversions, highlighting seasonal trends in service usage.
• The committee agreed to use a dedicated email address for public input, with staff planning to summarize themes rather than read every individual message aloud.

Next steps

• City staff will promote the public input email address via social media and press release.
• Carolyn Lear will follow up with Council Chair Susan Hawes to assign a council liaison to the committee.
• The committee will hold a public comment session at their next meeting.
• Robyn Stanicki will prepare an ecosystem map of current homeless services for a future meeting.
• Bruce Hews will reach out to the Penobscot County Jail to request data on releases of individuals identifying as transient.

Read the full transcript