Funding for shelters

The fact that lawmakers today will again consider adopting the conclusions of a study on the homeless endorsed by four commissioners, unanimously backed last year by a legislative committee and passed in the form of a bill by the full Legislature raises this question: If everyone is in favor of this practical solutions to clear problems, how come it doesn’t get funded?

And a related question: If there is a strong, committed advocate for the homeless in the State House, would he or she please stand up?

An interagency task force on homelessness in 1997 looked at the problem of a rising number of homeless people in Maine and the state’s effort to fund shelters to house them. The problem is not in question: Shelter populations have increased 33 percent in the last few years, and more than half of the visitors have mental health or substance abuse problems or both. Shelters that once served families no longer have the staff or facilities to provide safe, temporary housing for them but too often serve as bullpens for the addicted or mentally ill to develop problems serious enough to qualify for institutional care.

The funding problem is equally apparent. A review of Maine’s shelters in 1988 concluded that state should contribute 50 percent of the cost of housing the homeless, which at the time came to $500,000. Ten years later, the funding was the same $500,000, even though that now amounted to less than 10 percent of the budget. Last year, lawmakers increased that level to $1.1 million, but it is still far short of the $3.2 million the ’97 task force concluded was necessary. Next year’s budget returns to flat-funding, at $1.1 million.

Unless legislators do something about it. Not just nod their heads and say what a shame and go onto the next bill, actually fund the proposal that everyone agrees with. LD 2111 increases the homeless subsidy by $2.1 million. It lets shelter operators increase safety by increasing staffing levels; it provides training so staff will know what to do in an emergency; it lets this potentially dangerous job pay better than $7 an hour.

That’s where the need for a strong advocate comes in. State revenues are finite; requests for services, infinite. Just passing LD 2111 is not enough. The homeless need lawmakers who will also defend the funding when the end of the session nears and the scramble at the State House looks like last-minute Christmas shopping at Filene’s Basement.

Fighting for people who truly have nothing at that time requires lawmakers who will do more than merely agree there is a problem.