Lewiston-Auburn’s two shelters – Hope Haven Gospel Mission and St. Martin de Porres – have been overflowing.
Desperate for a bed, some people have gone to police for help.
A growing number of the people being turned away from the city’s largest shelter are women and children, said Paul McLaughlin, Hope Haven’s executive director.
In January, the 24-bed facility turned away four women and five children.
In all of 2005, the shelter turned away more children, 76, than either men, 60, or women, 41.
“Of course it hurts to tell women with children there isn’t room,” McLaughlin said. “But it’s not just one problem that sends them here.”
Fights with husbands and boyfriends often put women and their children on the street. Job losses and evictions also plunge women into limbo, McLaughlin said.
“We always try to find them another place,” he said. If there isn’t room, the shelter tries working with other local agencies.
Women who are homeless because of domestic abuse might be helped by the Abused Women’s Advocacy Project, which has a shelter of its own.
“We’re already trying to buy up bunk beds, to help as much as we can,” McLaughlin said.
Among the people now staying at Hope Haven’s Lincoln Street shelter is a family of eight: two parents and six children, ages 1 to 16.
Last year, the charity turned away 31 families, McLaughlin said.
Hope Haven is the only shelter in Lewiston-Auburn that takes families. The other, St. Martin de Porres, accepts only adults, up to nine men and four women.
And it only takes people on referral.
“We pride ourselves on a safe place,” said Irenee Richard, the Bartlett Street charity’s executive director. “We want to know who’s coming in.”
When the shelter fills, as it did Thursday night, police find a place for homeless people, even if that means driving them out of town.
“We’ll just make the phone calls until we find something,” said Lt. Michael McGonagle, spokesman for the Lewiston Police. “We’re not going to put anyone into the street.”
In the past, deputies from Androscoggin and Cumberland counties have worked as tag teams, meeting each other at their borders to shuttle people to available shelters in Portland or Lewiston, McGonagle said.
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