A couple of weeks ago I learned of the death of Trevor Sprague, a 34-year-old man who was homeless, apparently under a bridge in Bangor, and somehow set on fire. A horrible death, and a sad ending for a kind and gentle man, known by many of the homeless service providers throughout the state.

We could have this be the last death of its kind in Maine.

I knew this young man nearly a decade ago when he was staying at the Oxford Street Shelter in Portland. He was there sporadically for many months, and stood out not only because of his significant height and size – he was probably 6 feet, 5 inches tall. Affable, kind and gentle are my memories of Trevor. Raised in Lubec, he had a distinct Maine accent, a warm smile and was well-liked. He sought help in many parts of Maine, and spent time in various emergency shelters in Portland, Alfred, Brunswick and Bangor over the years.

Sadly, we were unable to stop his homelessness then and it became a chronic condition. This man spent the last third of his life homeless.

Instead of this tragedy keeping people up at night, the vivid image of a human being burning to death under a bridge in Maine will soon fade. The life of one who could have used more support from the rest of us will become just another number; one of a few dozen deaths this winter alone of people facing similar situations.

We can and must do better. In Maine we have proven that we can solve homelessness. We have the luxury of knowing all or at least the vast majority of people who face this challenge. They are our relatives, our neighbors, our friends, and they are an essential part of our community.

What they need is simple: Permanent supportive housing.

What is permanent supportive housing? Simply put it is a place to live with support. It is housing that is dedicated to providing a safe and stable home, one that is made affordable and one that has dedicated support services adequate to resolve the issues that underlie each person’s homelessness: services to treat mental illness; services to treat addiction; services to support victims of domestic violence in finding independence and empowerment and new lives; services to offset disabilities and to treat physical maladies; services for successful job training and employment.

Housing creates the home – the perfect therapeutic environment. Specific services foster independence and self-sufficiency and successful outcomes within the community. The model works. It costs less – far less – than doing nothing, and it works nearly every time. But first we must decide that homelessness is simply unacceptable.

Homelessness is unacceptable because we are wasting valuable and important human lives. No one should discover that their son has died in this violent way. Homelessness is also unacceptable because of economic costs. When people are chronically homeless they are missed by all but our emergency services – the services that are the least efficient to deliver for this type of population – police, rescue, emergency rooms – each call is extremely expensive when it occurs on the street. We have proven again and again that when people are housed in stable vs. emergency settings, emergencies become occasional rather than monthly or even daily occurrences.

In Portland, 30 chronically homeless adults were permanently housed at Logan Place one year ago – in the year before their housing they collectively accounted for 168 emergency calls; in the year since that number has dropped to 11. And the overflow for the overburdened emergency shelter system, used nearly daily (70 percent of the time) for a year prior to its opening, has not been used since – simply because of supportive housing for these 30 individuals.

People now have a place to call home and to heal. None is under a bridge or likely to perish in the shocking circumstances of our recent neighbor. By committing a small amount of resources into proactively creating permanent supportive housing, we can stop wasting larger amounts of money, change lives for the better and stop this thing called homelessness that does not need to exist. Let’s do this now instead of mourning the loss of the next victim of our collective inaction.

Cullen Ryan, a member of the State-wide Homeless Council, wrote this commentary on behalf of the council.