AUGUSTA — Plans to open a homeless shelter on the east side have hit a dead-end, as officials look to instead create rules and regulations on operating homeless shelters inside city limits.

Leaders of United Community Living Center, who sought to open a 20-bed overnight year-round, low-barrier homeless shelter at 16 East Chestnut St., let their option to purchase the building expire earlier this month. That came after the Planning Board postponed its review of the proposal and city councilors proposed a moratorium on new homeless shelters.

The proposal faced opposition from some neighbors and city councilors, who expressed concern the shelter could open without adequate rules in place to regulate its safe operation.

Advocates said the need for an Augusta shelter, especially in the current harsh winter weather, is still urgent. But they expressed a desire to work with the city on finding a solution that could garner enough support.

“While we strongly reject the idea that unhoused individuals pose an inherent threat to public safety, we understand how these perceptions influence planning decisions,” Dr. Garrett Fontaine, reading a statement from the United Community Living Center’s board, said at the Dec. 18 meeting.

“Research consistently shows that housing reduces involvement with the criminal justice system, substance use, and reliance on emergency services, while improving both mental and physical health,” said Fontaine, a family physician and Living Center board member. “Low-barrier shelters exist precisely to support neighbors with complex needs and help them move toward stability.”

At that same meeting, city councilors unanimously approved a 90-day moratorium on any new homeless shelters in Augusta and vowed to use that time to come up with — or at least clarify — rules and regulations for where in the city they could be and requirements for how they would be run.

The 90-day timeframe strikes a compromise between Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Judkins’ proposal for a 180-day ban on homeless shelters, and the 60 days United Community Living Center officials suggested.

Judkins and others have said the city does not have sufficient rules in place to ensure shelters are safely run and properly placed. Other councilors disagreed, though conceded the city’s current rules make it a difficult process.

“The oversight and regulations for shelters do exist in other ways, even if they aren’t explicitly outlined in our codes,” At-large Councilor Stephanie Sienkiewicz said. “And so I think some of this chaos that has played out over the last few weeks has been manufactured and unnecessary, and that is the antithesis of how I want to be as a leader.

“I do believe we have an emergency, and it’s one of our own making, that it is likely impossible a shelter, especially a low- or moderate-barrier shelter, to get through our ordinances and the Planning Board process as it’s written,” Sienkiewicz said. “That’s not the Planning Board’s fault; it’s baked into our ordinances.“

Ward 4 City Councilor Eric Lind said 90 days should provide officials with enough time while also giving a sense of urgency that they need to move quickly.

A key recommendation of the Augusta Task Force on Homelessness was the city needs a year-round homeless shelter. The Augusta Emergency Overnight Warming Center is open only during the cold winter months and only at night.

Last year, center officials unsuccessfully sought to open a 40-bed homeless shelter and community center on Green Street, just west of the city’s downtown. The Planning Board rejected the proposal after opposition from neighbors and downtown business owners.

The city is considering sending out a request for proposals seeking a partner to create and run a 30- to 45-bed low-barrier homeless shelter, potentially on one of two specific spots that the city may seek to have pre-approved for shelters. The options are using part of the park on Gage Street or basketball courts off Mount Vernon Avenue near the intersection with Bond Street.