The District Five Insider is a newsletter about the big decisions making their way through the City Council, what they mean for District Five, and how you can get involved. Enter your email and click subscribe to receive this newsletter in your mailbox.
Tuesday, September 16 2025
Breaking: City of Portland Submits Plan to Use 166 Riverside as Winter Emergency Warming Shelter
Late last week, the City of Portland submitted a grant application to MaineHousing that will shape the City’s emergency response to homelessness this winter. The application proposes to use 166 Riverside Industrial Parkway as the site for this winter’s emergency warming shelter, with a capacity of up to 60 individuals. The shelter would be open overnight during extreme cold weather only, activated when the daily low temperature reaches 15 °F or below, or snow accumulation of more than 10 inches occurs. It would operate from 7:30 pm to 6:00 am, with city staff on-site, and transportation provided via shuttle bus from the peninsula.
This decision will have sweeping consequences for residents, local businesses, and the most vulnerable people in our community.
As the District 5 Councilor, I want to be clear that I do not condone this plan. It is deeply flawed. It’s a last-resort measure driven not by thoughtful strategy, but by sheer necessity. It reflects a breakdown of systems far beyond the City’s control, and it underscores how urgently we need action at the state and county levels.
An Operational Decision—Not a Council Vote
This plan was not voted on by the Portland City Council, nor was it discussed in any public committee meeting. The decision to apply for the grant and designate 166 Riverside as the warming shelter site was made by City staff, under the authority of the City Manager’s office.
Under Portland’s Council-Manager system, many day-to-day operational decisions, especially those related to grant applications, emergency shelter operations, and city facility use, are made administratively. Councilors are often informed after the fact, especially when timelines are tight. That was the case here: the grant application was submitted on Friday to meet a deadline, and Councilors were notified shortly afterward.
I am sharing this information now because I believe residents deserve to know what’s happening and why.
A Broken System Leads To A Broken Response
City staff have spent nearly a year trying to find a more suitable location for this winter’s emergency shelter. They explored every avenue: outreach to private property owners, appeals to local churches and faith organizations, and conversations with nonprofits and service providers. All declined to take on this responsibility.
That is not a moral or professional failure. The reality is that the people this shelter is intended to serve require care and supervision far beyond what any church basement or volunteer-led space can provide. Many are in active substance use, in severe mental health crises, or have been chronically unsheltered for years. No amount of goodwill can substitute for the medical and behavioral health infrastructure needed to intervene.
What this situation reveals is not a failure of compassion; it is a failure of capacity. And Portland cannot solve it alone.
Why This Site Is Problematic
Unlike last year’s downtown warming shelter at First Parish Church, this year’s proposed site is far off-peninsula, located in an industrial area without access to services, social networks, or foot traffic. The building at 166 Riverside, a retrofitted warehouse, is already operating as a shelter for asylum-seeking single men.
The City’s plan calls for partitioning the shelter to house two distinct groups:
- Recently arrived immigrants, often fleeing trauma but generally in stable condition
- And individuals with extremely high needs, including active drug use and severe behavioral health crises.
This is an extraordinarily difficult environment to manage, even with trained city staff on-site. City staff hope to serve both populations in separate spaces, but it raises concerns about the safety and stability of both populations, and about whether either group will get the support they need.
Who Will Actually Use This Shelter?
Based on last year’s experience, only about 10% of those who sought shelter on cold nights would be able to use 166 Riverside. These are individuals who may be newly displaced, temporarily un-housed for a night or two, but otherwise able to board a shuttle bus and comply with shelter rules.
The other 90% are the hardest to reach and the most vulnerable:
- They are in active addiction and may not be willing or able to follow shelter rules.
- They may be experiencing mental health episodes, paranoid or disoriented.
- They often refuse to leave their belongings—shopping carts, bikes, bags of personal survival gear—on the peninsula.
- They may not even perceive the shelter as a safe place.
Last year, even when shelter was available downtown, many left in the middle of the night—sometimes inadequately clothed in dangerously low temperatures—to go outside and use. They could not tolerate the indoor environment, even with peer support and counseling available.
Now imagine this happening miles from the city center, in a residential neighborhood.
The County and State Must Act
This is not a City of Portland failure. This is a failure of a statewide system that has refused to acknowledge the depth of this crisis for decades.
At the County Level:
- Portland residents and businesses contribute millions each year to the Cumberland County budget.
- For years, Portland has allowed our voting seats on the County Finance Committee to sit empty.
- The Sheriff’s Department has not stepped up to offer the kind of medical or recovery-based intervention that other counties have implemented.
- There is no sobering center, no detox facility, no jail-based treatment pipeline.
We need county-level infrastructure. And we need it now.
At the State Level:
Governor Janet Mills is sitting on a $1 billion rainy-day fund while Maine’s largest city, and its primary economic engine, is scrambling for short-term grant dollars just to keep people alive this winter.
Portland’s downtown—home to small businesses, vital services, and thousands of workers—has become the default safety net for the state’s most vulnerable residents. Our sidewalks and public spaces are not designed to function as an emergency shelter system, yet that’s what they have become.
Our city’s businesses are being pushed to the breaking point. They are showing compassion, hiring locally, and staying open, but it’s hard to operate when your storefront becomes someone’s last refuge from the cold. These businesses deserve support. So do the people who are sleeping outside their doors.
The Maine Legislature must take emergency action now to:
- Develop a statewide emergency housing plan for winter 2025 that does not rely on municipal patchwork and last-minute scrambling.
- Fund low-barrier treatment facilities for people with severe addiction,
- Stand up stabilization shelters for those in acute mental health crisis,
- Tap the Governor’s billion dollar rainy-day-fund to address this emergency.
I’ll say this plainly: I am beyond asking politely. This is a public health emergency that demands a FEMA-scale response, not municipal triage. If a fire or flood had displaced this many Mainers, we would not tolerate bureaucratic delays or jurisdictional finger-pointing. This is no different. The winter is coming. People will die. We need an emergency response to match the scale of the emergency.
It’s Time to Stand Together And Demand More
We’re doing everything we can at the city level, but we’ve reached the end of our toolbox, and our budget.
Portland cannot do this alone. We cannot be the shelter system, the detox system, the mental health system, and the refugee resettlement system for the entire state. And yet, we try, every single day, with fewer resources than we need, and more need than we can carry.
I know Riverton residents will be upset. They already voiced concerns when this facility was opened to asylum seekers. I expect the opposition will only intensify with this announcement. We need everyone—neighbors, businesses, advocates, and elected officials—to lift your voices where it can make a difference: the State House, the County Commission, and the Governor’s office.
This is your moment. If you’ve ever said, “Why aren’t we doing more?” — here’s your answer. And here’s your assignment:
- Email the County Commissioners and Sheriff. Demand that they step up and take action now to protect public health this winter.
- Call your State Representatives and Senators. Demand a comprehensive response to homelessness and behavioral health crises.
- Contact Governor Mills. Ask why she’s hoarding a $1 billion surplus while people freeze to death in Portland.
Temporary Shelter Is Not a Solution, It’s a Band-aid
This plan is a stopgap. It will not solve anything. It will not reach most of the people who need help. It will not prevent winter deaths.
What we need are long-term investments in treatment, housing, and care. We need leadership from people with the power to act, not just from those of us trying to patch the system from below.
This is where we are. And unless we fight like hell to change the trajectory, it’s where we’ll be next winter too. And the one after that, and the one after that… I am asking Portland citizens to stand up and demand change, demand that our county, state and federal partners do their duty.
ksykes@portlandmaine.gov 207-558-5764
Notice: Under Maine law, documents – including e-mails and text messages – in the possession of public officials or city employees about government business may be classified as public records. There are very few exceptions. As a result, please be advised that what is written in a text message or e-mail could be released to the public and/or the media if requested.
Kate Sykes for District Five 