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Downtown District launches program to "solve" homelessness with street patrols

A coordinated and swift effort is underway to address business owners’ concerns about safety in Portland’s Monument Square, stemming from what they say is an uptick in the presence of unhoused people. 

Less than a week after concerns were raised by a prominent business owner at a City Council meeting and to the press, Portland Downtown has announced it intends to spend $750,000 on a new neighborhood ambassadors program. The ambassadors, reportedly between four to eight employees, would patrol the streets and work hand-in-hand with law enforcement.

It’s a novel arrangement, and one that made us do a double-take. The $750k price tag for the program comes as funding for other city social services has flatlined or even gone down. Portland Downtown is a Business Improvement District. While technically a nonprofit, Portland Downtown is an entity funded by all property owners within the district's area — commercial, residential, and nonprofit alike. 

This district (a map of which you can see here) is akin to a city-sanctioned, private government. The city gives Portland Downtown the ability to levy a mandatory fee on properties located within the district — and the district decides how to spend its money. The public has very little oversight over a Business Improvement District. This rather undemocratic civic body first formed about 50 years ago and really ramped up in the 1990s, and there are now thousands of Business Improvement Districts across the country.

In Portland, this week’s announcement of the program mentions the ambassadors doing things like "[g]iving directions, picking up trash, planting flowers, and community engagement." Though the ambassadors may spend time on these activities, a study of Business Improvement Districts in California by the Policy Advocacy Clinic at UC Berkeley (titled Homeless Exclusion Districts) found districts in California largely “coordinate closely with local police departments — and sometimes use their own private security — to enforce anti-homeless laws and otherwise exclude or remove homeless people from their districts."

For his part, Portland Downtown executive director Cary Tyson told WGME that “we’re not advocating for incarceration or anything like that. People need assistance, and that’s our goal is to help them.”

Portland Downtown's budget was presented to the Finance Committee on Thursday. The price tag and nature of the downtown ambassadors program was the primary focus of the conversation. In that discussion, Tyson shared that Portland Downtown would hire a company named StreetsPlus to administer the ambassadors program. 

Councilor Regina Philips raised concerns about the privatization of the service, "We already have a department that is supposed to be reaching out to folks downtown. I’m not sure folks that come there are trained to actually deal with unhoused people."

The full budget, including Portland Downtown's $750k ambassadors program, will be in front of the Finance Committee on May 15th for a public hearing.

Buoy, bye: Coast guard proposes removing key navigation buoys in Casco Bay

The Coast Guard has proposed removing hundreds of navigation buoys from East Coast waters, including over 150 in Maine alone and several in Casco Bay, citing in an announcement reasons of cost and the prevalence of improved GPS navigation technology. Many who live and work on the water are raising the alarm.

Some of the buoys in Casco Bay that are slated for removal mark key navigation hazards. Hattie Train, the Deputy Harbor Master of Portland Harbor, shared in a conversation with The Burn that a boater off Broad Cove in Scarborough clipped the shore side of a navigation buoy there a few years ago. The boat flipped and the boater died, presumably because it was too close to shore and didn’t heed the physical warning that the buoy signifies. That particular buoy is slated for removal.

“There is a reason we have marked these in the first place,” Train said, referring to a buoy slated for removal on Green Island Ledge near Harpswell, noting that the sonar shows a shipwreck on the ledge just below the buoy. “At what point is the budget cost worth the potential cost of loss of life?”

Another concern is the transition to an all-digital navigation system. The removals suggest app-based subscription services and other technology as a modern alternative to the navigation buoys, according to the notice published by the Coast Guard. But despite improvements to the technology, there are plenty of times that satellite and GPS service doesn't work. Many of the apps require an active subscription that can run from $50/month to as much as $300/month.

The Coast Guard is accepting comments on the plan by email only at [email protected]. Public comments will be open until June 13th.

Cruise ships return. So might Norovirus.

One year ago, the Meraviglia — a modern cruise monstrosity with 19 decks, 20 bars, a flight simulator and a water park — docked in Portland harbor on its way to the Caribbean. A few days after leaving Portland last year, the Meraviglia docked in Brooklyn with a 44-foot-long dead whale attached to its bow. It's likely the whale was killed by the cruise ship somewhere between Portland and New York. 

This same ship is scheduled to return to Portland on May 12th, with an estimated 4,500 passengers in tow. (And no, the Meraviglia hasn’t faced any fines or penalties as a result of the whale’s death.) A new advocacy group called Portland Cruise Control is raising awareness about new local safety measures for the ships, including limited discharge from so-called “scrubbers” on those boats, which filter air pollutants like sulfur and dump them into the water.

In addition to stronger environmental controls, the group is asking the city to establish a mandatory system for communicating about disease outbreaks prior to docking. According to Portland Cruise Control's social media, there's currently no system in place to notify workers, residents, or other tourists in Portland when infectious passengers need to disembark in order to clean the ships. 

Two boats which are scheduled to dock in Portland in the next few weeks have had recent outbreaks. The 1,916-passenger Zuiderdam reported a Norovirus outbreak in April 2025 and December of 2024 and will dock three times in Portland between May and June. The 1,412-passenger Volendam lands in June and reported a Norovirus outbreak in January. 

Portland sues Augusta

Thanks to federal and state cuts, the City of Portland’s budget shortfall reached a whopping $29 million this year. A bulk of this lost revenue comes from decreases to funding that supports homeless services. (Ahem, see item number one of this newsletter.)

Mayor Mark Dion has been lobbying the state and didn't mince words to WGME 13. 

"Here's the reality: Augusta has walked away from us on the homeless issue," Dion said, citing a recent rule change capping government assistance reimbursements from the state for overnights at city shelters that drastically reduced the amount of money coming to the city. Dion said this new cap could lead to "people going back onto the street."

The City of Portland funds a large share of homeless services for residents in the city — and for surrounding areas as well. The State of Maine has traditionally helped in financing for the shelter and for other housing options like temporary hotels. The double-whammy this year is that the State made an administrative change that drastically cuts the amount of money going to reimburse Portland for these services. 

Governor Janet Mills, meanwhile, is also proposing changes to just how long the state will provide emergency shelter funding. According to the City Manager’s budget presentation, Mills’ budget “appears to propose cutting off emergency rental assistance after just three months,” which could put 592 houses in Portland at risk of eviction.

The city is now suing the Maine Department of Health and Human Services over the rule change. Portland’s delegation to Augusta, which could lobby to change or reject Mills’ budget, rarely acts as a united front despite holding eight seats in the Maine House and two in the Senate.

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Authors and Editors

Em Burnett wrote this edition of The Burn, with editing from Nick Schroeder.