Shawn Stanford hauls a cart full of dishes to the banks of the Kennebec River to wash on Aug. 28.

Shawn Stanford, 38, changes his clothes in his tent Aug. 28 at a homeless encampment near the Hathaway Creative Center in the South End of Waterville.

Shawn Stanford smokes meth in his tent after a day of work on Sept. 6.

Shane Moody, 41, washes dishes Sept. 6 at a restaurant in downtown Waterville. Moody is homeless and lives in a tent.

Amanda Frasier sifts through a dumpster Sept. 7 behind a store on Kennedy Memorial Drive in Waterville. Frasier would monitor the tent she shared with her boyfriend, Shawn Stanford, at a homeless encampment when he worked. They would often have belongings stolen when they left the tent unattended. When Stanford returned to the camp, Frasier would leave to look for usable items for everyday life.

Shane Moody cuddles in his tent at a homeless encampment with a stray cat he named Big Boy after working a shift of washing dishes Sept. 7 at a restaurant in Waterville.

Shawn Stanford works a shift Sept. 9 in the kitchen of a restaurant in downtown Waterville.

Shawn Stanford works to fix a generator Sept. 11 at a homeless encampment in Waterville.

Shawn Stanford hauls a wagon of five-gallon water jugs back to a homeless encampment on Sept. 12. The encampment was on the island in the Kennebec River in the South End of Waterville.

Shawn Stanford sips water from a fountain Sept. 12 at Head of Falls in Waterville. Stanford and his girlfriend regularly used five-gallon jugs to collect water from the fountain to use for drinking water and cooking at the homeless encampment where they lived for months.

Shawn Stanford and his girlfriend, Amanda Frasier, rest in their tent Sept. 16 as they recover from cotton fever, an illness that develops following the injection of drugs filtered through cotton.

Shawn Stanford works a shift Sept. 17 in the kitchen of a restaurant in downtown Waterville. The wages he earns are not enough to secure housing so Stanford lives with his girlfriend at a homeless encampment near downtown.

Amanda Frasier becomes emotional Sept. 22 as she grapples with life in a tent at a homeless encampment in the South End of Waterville.

Shawn Stanford builds a fire Oct. 10 near the door to the tent he shares with his girlfriend, Amanda Frasier, at a homeless encampment in Waterville.

Shawn Stanford walks on a trail Oct. 14 that connects an island on the Kennebec River to the South End in Waterville just below the Hathaway Creative Center. Stanford and others living in a homeless encampment were forced to relocate on the island because of floodwaters.

Shawn Stanford airs out his foot Oct. 14 after spending the night contending with floodwaters near a homeless encampment where he lives on an island in the Kennebec River near the Hathaway Creative Center in the South End of Waterville.

Shane Moody, 41, sits among some belongings Oct. 18 after a surprise flood displaced people living at a homeless encampment in the South End of Waterville. A friend, Mary Nadeau, stands at right.

Shane Moody, 41, sorts through the remnants of his destroyed belongings in his tent after a surprise flood displaced the members of the South End homeless encampment on Oct. 18.

Shane Moody checks on two other homeless people Oct. 13 as they fight in their tent while rain falls at a homeless encampment in the South End in Waterville.

Shane Moody, 41, looks down a trail to his flooded tent on Oct. 15 after the Kennebec River broke its banks the night before, sending him and several other homeless people scrambling for higher ground in Waterville’s South End.

Shane Moody, 41, takes shelter from the rain in the car of a friend, Mary Nadeau, on Oct. 17. Moody had finished setting up a new campsite on higher ground after floodwaters had overtaken a homeless encampment where Moody was staying on the island on the Kennebec River near the Hathaway Creative Center.

Shawn Stanford walks through the rain toward a waiting ride Nov. 1 to get fuel for his propane heater for use at the homeless encampment in Waterville where he lived at the time. The encampment was within site of the Hathaway Creative Center, a well known mixed-use commercial and residential building, seen in the background.

Shawn Stanford emerges from his tent Nov. 16 as the first snow of the season covers a homeless encampment below the Hathaway Creative Center in the South End of Waterville.

In this time-lapse photograph, the headlamps used by Shane Moody and Shawn Stanford streak toward a homeless encampment below the Hathaway Creative Center in Waterville on Nov. 28. Morning Sentinel photographer Michael G. Seamans, who lives at the Hathaway center, spent months with Moody and Stanford to capture their lives as working homeless men.

A Waterville police officer arrests Amanda Frasier on Nov. 29 on an outstanding warrant for failure to appear in court. They’re shown at her tent at a homeless encampment below the Hathaway Creative Center in Waterville.

A Waterville police officer arrests Shawn Stanford on an outstanding warrant for failure to appear in court. He was taken into custody Dec. 23 at the homeless encampment near downtown Waterville where he shared a tent with his girlfriend, Amanda Frasier, in background.

Amanda Frasier quickly grabs some belongings Dec. 24 from a tent she shares with boyfriend Shawn Stanford after the pair were offered three nights at a hotel by Waterville interim police Chief Bill Bonney.

Amanda Frasier and her boyfriend, Shawn Stanford, talk on Dec. 26 about their next move once their time is up at the Waterville hotel where they are staying. The two had been living in a tent for nearly six months and were finding living in the cold temperatures to be too dangerous and depressing. They planned to travel to Stanford’s mother’s home in Brunswick.

Mary Nadeau helps haul Shane Moody’s belongings to her car on Dec. 29 as he prepares to leave the homeless encampment where he had lived for nine months.

Amanda Frasier walks through the living room Jan. 4 at the Brunswick home of her boyfriend’s mother.

Shawn Stanford and girlfriend Amanda Frasier relax Jan. 4 at his mother’s home in Brunswick.

Shane Moody rests on a couch with friend Mary Nadeau and her cat on Dec. 31. Moody was living at a homeless encampment in Waterville but was invited to stay with Nadeau as the winter cold was making it dangerous to live outside.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.

filed under: