By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES — People might be surprised that in a tourist town like Naples that a homeless person was sleeping on a bench on the Causeway this summer.

Yet, homelessness is a reality that is not confined to the city. It has become a reality in rural areas, too. There is a lack of affordable housing that is contributing to this problem.  

CrossWalk Community Outreach hosted a homelessness workshop, which was held in the gymnasium of the Naples town hall on Monday. The objective was to identify some solutions to help people — not just individuals but also families — who are homeless. 

Transitional housing was suggested as one of the needs. Also, it was recommended that towns should work together to get the funding for and to build a transitional housing unit that serves the region.

This summer, a homeless woman was picked up on the Causeway and dropped off at the town office, according to CrossWalk board member Joanne Moore.  

The woman had arrived in the area after being turned away from shelters that were at capacity in Portland. 

She was allowed to stay in the Naples gymnasium for two days because all the hotels rooms were booked, according to Naples Town Manager John Hawley.

Hawley talked about the process people in need go through to get assistance at the town level. He talked about the town’s General Assistance fund. This fund does not give money directly to the person in need but pays the entity providing the service such as heat or food or a bed for the night.    

“We can only fix the problem if there is a solution at the other end. There has to be a place to stay. When someone comes looking for place to stay, yes, we have funds to help with rent but there has to be a place to stay,” Hawley said. “It is easy to pay someone’s electric bill because there is CMP on the other end. It is easy to help with food. We give them a voucher for Tony’s [The Umbrella Factory Supermarket].” 

“It is not so much the homelessness. It is the lack of homes that is the issue,” he said, adding that it is difficult to find a decent, heated 2-bedroom apartment in the area for under $1200.

Also, the General Assistance budget runs out quickly when the money is used to pay full price for hotel rooms. The town has been housing two people in a hotel for nearly 10 weeks, he said. 

Money from the general assistance fund cannot pay for a person’s mortgage. Therefore, if someone is behind on their home payment, the town cannot help with that bill. 

Pat Scully, a volunteer at CrossWalk food pantry asked about the housing market.

“From your experience, what is the availability of housing? We have friends who are brokers who say they have never been so busy. People are buying homes in this area, driven by COVID, making homes and rental properties much harder to find,” Scully said. 

Hawley answered that this was true.

“The properties that are available are disappearing faster than ever. We have one of our general assistance cases looking for an apartment for two or three months now. And, there is just nothing available,” Hawley said.

Scully posed another question. 

“With the lack of available housing, I am curious whether there has been serious conversation about creating a shelter, more affordable housing,” he said.  

Hawley said that in order for a shelter to be build or an existing building to be renovated into a shelter the towns would have to collaborate. It is not an undertaking for one town but rather multiple towns. 

“We are going to have to come together as a region. We would have to do it through another organization that [is a non-profit].  Something like that is going to be done, specifically for this area,” he said. 

 Cumberland County Manager James Gailey, who joined the workshop via Zoom, agreed.

“No one community could do it alone. It would take communities banding together,” Gailey said.

Also, there was discussion that bigger towns have employees who write grants. A group of smaller towns could hire a regional grantwriter to take advantage of that type of funding for a project like transitional housing.

Moore said she has reviewed the inventory of vacant buildings in the region when looking for another food pantry venue.

On the corner Tenney Hill Road and Route 302, there is a large building that was originally intended for commercial use. She said the top floor was never finished

Scully recommended that the group get their hands-on statistics of homelessness. 

“If we are going to Avesta Housing to try to pitch the idea, you are going to have to bring them hard data to what the level of need is,” Scully said.

Tory Ryden, who also volunteers preparing and delivering meals, added to that idea. 

“In lock step with data, you have to have community members. You have to have people who will support that data. If you are looking at a homeless shelter, it has to have proper representation. You have to have groups of people to support it,” she said.