The Portland City Council could vote as soon as June 5 on a plan to allow homeless services to be moved to an industrial park far on the outskirts of town.

As Preble Street Executive Director Mark Swann said, we should "not simply be pushing poor people into industrial parks and the like in an effort to hide the problem."

People need community and connection to reach stability and recovery. Not isolation in an industrial zone.

Will you sign the petition to the city council urging them to support housing first and reject any to any plan to warehouse our homeless in an isolated industrial park?
The plan as passed by the Portland Planning Board would allow a new shelter to built as much as half a mile from the nearest public transit.

People trying to rebuild their lives would face 2 to 3 hour travel times to the nearest job interview or apartment listing.

People with disabilities would have even less of a chance at success.

There is no denying that Oxford Street Shelter needs an upgrade. It is wholly inadequate, even dangerous. And the status quo of clustering all services in one small part of the city is not the best way to help people escape the horror of homelessness.

But we need public policy that ends homelessness, like housing first. Shelter is not housing. And making homeless people invisible is not a solution.

Will you sign the petition to the city council urging them to support housing first and reject any to any plan to warehouse our homeless in an isolated industrial park?