I read with dismay that another shelter is closing, this time in Alfred. Farmington’s shelter closed in 2020. Where do these people go? They’ll likely show up at another Maine shelter.

We don’t have to play musical chairs like this. The failure is in our funding model, where service providers rely on grants, gifts, and municipal budgets. Other regional services are set up at the county level, like our courts, sheriff’s department, and 911 dispatch. It makes sense that our shelter systems should be coordinated at the county level, too.

The state could mandate this by only dispensing state and federal aid to a county shelter coordinator with an approved operating plan. A county may contract with service providers, but the stop-gap funding should come from the county budget. A county’s budget is factored by each town’s property valuation, so communities would contribute based on their capacity to pay. This would spread the burden more fairly across the state.

It’s a model for optimum efficiency and effectiveness. The state can monitor which counties serve homeless residents at the lowest costs with the best outcomes and transfer those lessons to other county programs. It would allow for more efficient coordination, service distribution and resource sharing. Our disjointed approach is costing us: in 2024, MDOT spent $100,000 cleaning up encampments. How many funds are tied up in ERs and public safety departments responding to homeless individuals?

It’s time to stop playing games and set up a county-coordinated service system in Maine.

Robert O’Brien
Portland