Maine's largest city started removing a sprawling homeless encampment outside of its downtown area on Tuesday that was home to dozens of people living in tents.
Officials in Portland began notifying people living in the camp in recent days that it would be removed, and the process began early Tuesday morning. The camp consists of as many as 100 tents along a winding walking trail that skirts numerous businesses about a mile outside of the city's busy core.
The majority of people living in the camp had left by mid-morning and the effort was focusing on cleanup of the area. Remediation of the site will continue into Wednesday and remain an ongoing effort, city officials have said.
The number of encampments in the city is growing “at a significant rate,” interim city manager Danielle West told Portland Mayor Kate Snyder in a memo obtained by The Associated Press. The city takes a “hands off” approach to the encampments when shelters are full, as they are now, unless they became a threat to health and safety, the memo stated.
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“Over the past month, despite multiple warnings that the encampment was scheduled for removal, it has grown in size. Trash receptacles placed onsite to assist campers in properly disposing of waste have not been effective in addressing the hazardous conditions,” the memo stated.
The memo stated that the city recommended people living in the camp visit a local social services office to find out what resources are available to them.
Portland is a city of about 68,000 and is located in the southern part of the state, about 55 miles (88.51 kilometers) from the state capital of Augusta. It's one of the largest cities in New England located north of Boston.
The city has struggled to service its homeless population in recent years. The city opened a new shelter earlier this year that is located a few miles from downtown in an attempt to relocate homeless services away from the core of the city.
