In My Opinion: Homelessness & Drugs

With all the giveaways, the City of Bangor has created a MECCA for homelessness, many with mental health and substance abuse issues. Now we are seeing drug dealers from other states prey on the very people they are

trying to help. The problem, as I see it, is that there is no comprehensive plan. A three-legged stool is only as steady as its legs. Unfortunately, the city has only one leg to stand on when it comes to homelessness. They have been throwing money at the issue for years, expecting it to miraculously go away, but the problem is only increasing. Why? Let's start with the basics. If you are a homeless individual with a substance use problem and you are placed into housing but not required to go to rehab or counseling as a condition of housing, you've done nothing to fix the problem. The only thing that will be accomplished is allowing someone to die in a bed instead of a tent.

Giving with no accountability does nothing but perpetuate the problem. In essence, these folks are being tortured. They are being kept just above rock bottom- in poverty and in a hopeless state.

Many people are illegally relocated to the city, further exacerbating the problem. What we must do is reduce the number of services available. Now, before you call me heartless, remember what I just said about keeping folks in a perpetual state of poverty? What's heartless is having folks in the city who we neither have the resources nor the workforce to care for.

We need to limit the volunteer agencies and the NGOs that the city funds, which, by the way, were all given millions by the city from Covid funds. These organizations are not accountable to the city, and we don't know where the money is going. 

Why, with a population of less than 40,000, do we have three methadone clinics? More than Portland, which has double the population.

I don't at all agree with harm reduction. Telling someone to use a clean needle when they are putting poison in their arm is not reduction, it's insanity.  And the needle program is obviously not working if the numbers for Hepatitis C and HIV continue to climb.

Why haven't we gone back to needle exchange instead of distribution? It's been almost six years since the COVID pandemic. Yet, the city, i.e., taxpayers, paid.

$ 29,000 last year for needle pickup.

Additionally, we are paying $300,000 per year for "ambassadors" to serve as liaisons between the homeless and the general public in the downtown area.

Instead of helping those with substance use and homelessness, the city has become one giant enabler. This is the real reason for the problem. Look, I will give the shirt off my back, but if you continue to come back and want my shoes, my pants, and my socks, and have done nothing to improve your situation, the answer will be no, because then I have become the enabler. I am a huge proponent of a hand up, not a handout. Handouts have only increased the homeless problem, increased drug usage, and increased crime.

If you agree with me, please donate to my campaign.