Desirae Rowe, Who Lives in the Oxford Street Outdoor Community With Scott Smith, Who Lives at Milestone Recovery, 65 India Street. Both Are Smart and Articulate and They Have Become Good Friends Because They Know How to Communicate With Each Other.
Part of the Population Living Outside on Oxford Street, Near the Oxford Street Shelter Earlier This Week.
The population living outdoors on Oxford Street, on the east end of Portland, grows in size every few days. Most of these people do not want to live at the nearby Oxford Street Shelter they admit.
Life at the Oxford Street Shelter is harsh. So, many have chosen to move onto Oxford Street because of conditions at the Shelter. “Everyone has different issues for the move to the street,” said a source famililar with the situation. “Communication between staff and clients is an issue for some. Shelter staff are not trained on mental health or substance use issues. About 95% of the Oxford Street population is affected by mental health or substance use according to this source. Society has discarded them hoping to leave no trace of them it seems.
Consequently, this population can be difficult to place in an already tight housing market. Reasons such as bad credit and the fact that they are hard to employ excaberate the situation.
New Mainers are more likely to get housing here because they mostly don’t have these same issues. Many of them have well-honed skills that this population often lacks.
“I’m iritated with the city of Portland because there aren’t enough resources for us out here,” said Desiree Rowe, who has been on the Section 8 Wait List for twelve (12) years.
Rowe, a native of Portland who had planned to go to college to pursue an education in oceanography, said she and others need a safe injection site. “That would cut down on our overdose deaths,” She continued: “Why don’t city officials repurpose abandoned buildings for people who don’t want to live in a shelter because of bed bugs or other health issues? We don’t like it much when personal items are stolen either. We don’t feel like humans when we are out here and they don’t treat us like humans. They treat us more like animals. If we were treated with more dignity and respect, we would give it back. I’ll treat you the way you treat me,” Rowe said.
Rowe admits that she has made some stupid decisions in her life. “But people who are not addicts don’t understand that it’s a lot easier to talk about getting clean then just doing anything about it. Even people who try to help us don’t understand how deep addicts can be. They can be very judgmental about us” she said.
Scott Smith, who lives at Milestone Recovery, 65 India Street, has changed his life dramatically. “I just got plain tired of the way I was living,” he explained.
More than twenty years ago, this blogger participated on a state task force intended to come up with ideas for community services following the closing of the Augusta Mental Health Institute, (AMHI) It was a temporary task force with only a few meetings as this blogger recalls. However, there are several facts that stand out from this experience: the facilitator of the task force emphasized there would never be enough funding available to meet the needs of this population displaced by the closing of AMHI. State politicians did not want to continue to fund AMHI, so they would not be interested in sinking large pots of money into a bottomless pit, so to speak. He also advised the task force members there would be casualities because of this change, but never admit that to the press. That secret is safe with this blogger.
For more about Scott Smith, the bottle recycler, please visit posts herein dated April 10, April 26, April 24 and April 23, 2020/