I’m Paul Madore, a Bangor homeowner. I wasn’t always a homeowner: I spent two years homeless in my early 20s. I was homeless in all 48 contiguous states and met dozens, if not hundreds, other homeless people.
I say without doubt that the majority of the homeless in Bangor are committing felonies every single day. I remind you that possession of a schedule W drug is a felony. The police should be allowed to deal with these crimes as they are, and the courts should take these drug and larceny charges as seriously as it does things like, for example, driving after suspension.
The more resources available to the homeless, the more homeless we will have. In San Francisco for a short time I was housed in a high rise apartment complex built for the homeless. After many decades of approaching the problem the way you are, San Francisco remains a top destination for the homeless, and has more of them than ever. Over 8,000 homeless roam those streets today, up from approximately 6500 when I was there in 2012. The public safety implications are obvious. But San Francisco is a city of over 800,000, most of whom contribute in some way to the tax base. We are a city of less than 35,000, with an average hourly wage of $18, and we are apparently expected to look after an ever increasing number of non contributors. As far as I understand it, our homeless proportion is about double theirs.
So far all the efforts of this city government have resulted in more, not less, homeless. Moreover continually raising taxes to provide for the homeless contributes to homelessness by making housing less affordable.
Other towns send their homeless here – Brewer police, for one, are known to direct them here – and Bangor taxpayers are expected to provide limitless care for them. Why can’t we just send these people back, and limit our resources to Bangor residents?
Using the same failed strategies as places like San Francsico and New York City will yield the same or worse results. It is time to get more creative. It is time to actively prosecute the criminals in the homeless community and use the resources saved in so doing to provide real help to the minority who are in that situation through no fault of their own.
Read more about my ideas to deal with the homeless here.