When the homeless might be safer on the streets than in Maine shelters, is there any question that something is wrong? A bill before legislators gives them a chance to do right by this segment of society — a population many people would rather not think about.

The Legislature in 1988 set the state’s share for homeless, youth and domestic violence shelters at $500,000, which equalled roughly half the cost of operating the 12 facilities statewide. Unfortunately, the funding amount has remain unchanged since then, but now 37 shelters must divide that money. The $500,000 now accounts for about 8 percent of the total shelter budget. That means bed shortages, a lack of safety for some shelter guests, little in the way of help for the mentally ill and no help to move people from shelters to more productive lives.

Dennis Marble, executive director of the Greater Bangor Area Shelter, recently testified about some of the challenges he encounters. “We shelter,” he said, “active paranoid schizophrenics, women fleeing domestic violence, mentally retarded adults released from jail, migrant workers from Texas who got stranded in Caribou, pregnant teenage and young couples from central Maine, looking for work.

“We deal with lice, scabies, tuberculosis, heart disease and seizures.

“We deal with anger, despair, frustration, loneliness, lack of self-esteem, psychotic behaviors, depression and real thoughts of suicide.”

Shelter populations have increased 33 percent in just the last couple of years; 55 percent of these homeless people have mental health or substance abuse problems or both. The small amount of money the state gave 10 years ago is no longer enough to help them.

A task force last year looked at the state’s feeble effort to support the shelters and devised an admirable plan that boosts supervision at shelters and frees up local money for job training and education. Most importantly, the plan improves the partnership between the local nonprofits and the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse. That means better mental-health care and a more effective use of resources.

The proposal would add $2.6 million to the $500,000 contribution, returning the state to its 50 percent share of costs. That’s a large increase, but members of the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee supported it unanimously and appropriately made funding the plan one of their highest priorities. The Appropriations Committee, which will consider it next, should do the same.

For a family in a stretch of hard luck and really in need of a place to stay for the night, shelters right now are sometimes the last place for them to go. Shelter directors do not have the staff to ensure a family’s safety and no doubt sometimes worry about their own. That isn’t right. The shelter proposal before lawmakers goes a long way toward improving this.