Portland parks officials continue to monitor ‘societal crisis’ in Deering Oaks

Portland city officials say slow progress is being made on the “societal crisis” in Deering Oaks Park, although there’s no immediate solution.

During a Sept. 3 Parks Commission meeting, Ethan Hipple, the city’s acting director of Parks, Recreation and Facilities, characterized the large crowds of people staying in Deering Oaks Park as an encampment and said there’s frequent “negative behavior,” such as open drug and alcohol use, and drug dealing.

The encampment in the park began about the same time as homeless protesters began camping outside City Hall in late July, demanding services and rights to be provided by the city to those experiencing homelessness.

The camping at City Hall Plaza lasted for more than two weeks. The number of people camping in Deering Oaks grew after people left City Hall.

“It’s hard to miss down there, and it’s part of a larger, societal crisis,” Hipple said.

But others at the meeting attributed the crowding in the parks to the decision by the Preble Street Resource Center to close its soup kitchen earlier this summer. Anne Pringle, president of the group Friends of Deering Oaks, said like all parks, Deering Oaks is there for all people to enjoy. However, that requires those using the park to follow a set of rules, which she said those camping in the park have ignored.

“Everyone is welcome,” Pringle said. “But basic rules have to be followed by all. So those basic rules involve no drug use or drug dealing, no public drinking, no public sex, no urination or defecation. That’s the basic principle. And all these behaviors have been observed.”

Pringle said it’s Preble Street’s fault these people are in the park, and their closing of services caused a “mass migration” to the park, which in turn created a series of problems.

She noted the death of Celestin Muhizi, a 76-year-old immigrant who was killed in the park in July when a driver struck Muhizi as he watched a baseball game. The driver, charged with manslaughter, had overdosed while driving. She said Muhizi was a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, who survived that only “to die in Deering Oaks Parks.”

“These are very serious situations,” Pringle said.

Preble Street has been blamed not just by Pringle, but by city officials including City Manager Jon Jennings for the situation in the park.

Preble Street has said the decision to close its soup kitchen and transition to meal delivery was made with guidance from the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, since a centralized, congregate setting like a soup kitchen for the homeless was dangerous during the coronavirus pandemic.

Some city councilors, including Councilor Belinda Ray, have said the city’s homeless population is not a new thing, and that it has only now become more visible to residents after that population shifted from the streets of Bayside to the green spaces of the park.

Pringle also claimed a large number of those encamped in the park are not city residents or Maine residents, and in some cases not even U.S. citizens. She said the state needs to step in and help and define a policy for homelessness.

“This is a problem that has to be dealt with by more than just the city of Portland,” Pringle said.

She urged the city not to decriminalize camping, which was a request by those who camped at City Hall, because that is a “slippery slope” that has been confronted around the country.

“If you start to allow overnight camping in the parks, it could create a myriad of issues,” Pringle said.

The best bet, she said, is for the city to complete a proposed shelter on Riverside Street.

Hipple said parks staff has resumed maintaining the park as much as they can, but there are still several places where it is deemed too dangerous for staff – particularly the area between Forest Avenue and High Street across from the U.S. post office, where Hipple said staff has routinely been threatened and accosted. He said it’s at the discretion of the shift supervisor about how far into that area staff go to rake, collect trash, and complete other maintenance projects.

Parks staff also had stopped maintaining large portions of Deering Oaks because of an increasing number of used hypodermic needles being found in the park, despite the presence of disposal bins in the park for people to dispose of used needles. Hipple said there have also been several assaults, overdoses, and arrests in the park.

He said the city continues to partner with other agencies, including Preble Street and the Opportunity Alliance, to try to provide services to those in the park, trying to get people to go to shelters, and seek additional services. The city’s Health and Human Services Department continues outreach, he said, and police and fire units are continuously responding to calls.

“It may not appear to the public like a lot is happening, but folks are actively there every day,” Hipple said. “It’s being thought about every day, but it is slow progress.”

Parks Commissioner Marie Gray called what’s going on in the park a “travesty,” saying it makes her “physically ill” when she drives by the encampment.

“It’s heartbreaking and infuriating,” Gray said. “Let us not forget this is a flagrant abuse of a public asset.”

Fellow Parks Commissioner Caitie Whelan pushed back at the comments from Pringle and Gray, saying throughout the city there has been “a real dehumanization of the folks in the park.”

“These are our fellow neighbors,” Whelan said. “They have been let down and they have not been served.”

Whelan said what’s going on in the park is certainly a “complex issue,” but the rest of the city should not lose sight of “the humanity of these individuals.” She said there’s no question people don’t want to be living in the park, but “this is where they found themselves.”

“I ask us to have a spirit of neighborliness,” Whelan said.