Lewiston Planning Board recommends against proposed language on transitional housing

LEWISTON — The Planning Board has recommended against a proposal by the City Council that would regulate transitional housing in the same manner as homeless shelters.

The council will need a supermajority of five votes to pass the proposed language in a final reading next week. However, councilors have also preemptively placed a moratorium on the agenda as a “backstop” in case the proposed language doesn’t move forward.

The effort to add a definition of transitional housing and regulate it like shelters comes in response to a Lewiston Housing proposal to purchase the Ramada Hotel on Pleasant Street and operate it as affordable housing with supportive services.

City Clerk Kathy Montejo has said that if the language is ultimately adopted, any transitional housing programs would need to obtain a homeless shelter license in order to operate.

A 4-3 majority of the council said earlier this month that a potential moratorium could give city officials additional time to review the Lewiston Housing proposal. The project, like any other development, would be reviewed by the Planning Board and city staff.

However, it’s unclear whether Lewiston Housing’s proposal at the Ramada would meet the proposed definition of transitional housing. City staff did not immediately respond to questions about the definition Tuesday.

Lewiston Housing Director Chris Kilmurry said Tuesday he doesn’t believe the language — or a moratorium — would impact the project because the federal definition of transitional housing says there is a 24-month limit on occupancy.

“We were clear that there is no limit on the amount of time that people could stay when we presented to the council during the workshop,” he said. “We would like people to successfully move on to the next phase of their life successfully from the property, but it is not required.”

Kilmurry previously told the council that the units would be intended for “Lewiston residents who are homeless, priced out of the market and/or victims of no-fault evictions.” He said Tuesday that the transitional housing reference made by Lewiston Housing was “aspirational.”

“We are providing services to help people aspire and achieve more, but if the property is where they would like to call home, they can do so for as long as they choose, as long as they remain a tenant in good standing,” he said. “What we plan to create is permanent affordable housing.”

The Planning Board on Tuesday agreed with recent recommendations from the Housing Committee that said the proposed language could cause unintended consequences, and that the two types of housing should not be regulated together.

“Fundamentally, the folks who need a homeless shelter are in a different place in their life than the folks who need transitional housing, and I don’t think they are at all the same and should not be regulated the same way,” board member Amy Smith said.

The proposal under consideration to add a definition of transitional housing came forward after councilors asked city staff to look into South Portland’s recently-updated ordinance. The ordinance includes language that prevents hotels from operating as shelters, but does not include a specific definition of transitional housing.

Lewiston does not have a definition of transitional housing, but organizations such as New Beginnings, which operates what could be defined as transitional housing, are concerned they will be regulated as homeless shelters. That means adhering to the city’s shelter ordinance and overlay district, which stipulates where such uses can operate, and requires a license.

Planning Board members largely agreed Tuesday that transitional housing should not be regulated in the same manner as shelters.

Board member Kristine Kittridge said it would be “exceedingly shortsighted to include transitional housing” in a definition that would be affected by the shelter overlay zone.

Member Alex Pine said he’s not even sure the language would technically apply to transitional housing in the sense that the council is attempting, and argued that South Portland has not had its language in place long enough for it to be emulated.

“We’re trying to clean up our code and this seems overly onerous,” board member Josh Nagine said. “If we’re limiting housing, or creating complications, that’s a challenge.”

Board member Shanna Cox said the definitions of transitional housing and homeless shelters “don’t match in sheer grammar and logistics,” and she’s concerned the language change could negatively impact survivors of domestic violence transitioning to different housing.

The lone public comment came from City Councilor Scott Harriman, who told the board that when the shelter ordinance was created, transitional housing was never considered, so “a lot of the provisions wouldn’t fit.”

He also said that creating policy “to specifically interfere” with one project — the Ramada proposal — “just isn’t good practice.”

Meanwhile, the Lewiston Board of Appeals will discuss the Ramada proposal Wednesday. Lewiston Housing has asked the city for a variance that would allow a minimum dwelling unit size of 282 square feet, rather than the required 300 square feet. During recent meetings, Lewiston Housing officials said the large majority of rooms at the hotel are just under the city’s required minimum size.

The city of Portland is renting several rooms at the Ramada Hotel in an effort to transition asylum-seeker families to permanent housing. While Lewiston Housing has a purchase and sale agreement in place, the hotel is still privately owned. Officials have said the goal is to have asylum-seeker families resettled by Nov. 1.