As you are likely aware, the HHS & PS Committee is currently working through a list of potential sites for the city's new Homeless Services Center. This facility will replace the city's current facility for single adults experiencing homelessness, the Oxford Street Shelter, and it will likely have something in the neighborhood of 150 beds. 

We're working hard to vet all of the potential locations in the city for this establishment and to choose the best possible location. To find out where we are in our process and how it is likely to proceed from here, read on. 

Additions/changes in red.

The Health and Human Services & Public Safety Committee (HHS & PS) has been working to fine-tune the proposed Earned Paid Sick Leave ordinance since April of 2018. Now, after many months of feedback, consideration, and work, we have an updated draft ready for another public hearing. That hearing took place on January 8, 2019 at at 5:30pm in Council Chambers at City Hall, 389 Congress Street.

After the public hearing, the committee made a few more changes to the ordinance, which have been added to the original article below. 

You can download  the current draft of the ordinance here.

To help you wade through the changes, I've provided a section by section guide below. I've also written a quick rundown of what the ordinance does—and what it doesn't do—in a separate blog post. 

On January 8, 2019 the Health and Human Services & Public Safety Committee (HHS & PS) held another public hearing on the proposed Earned Paid Sick Leave ordinance. Here's a quick rundown of the ordinance's main points, including changes that were made at the January 8th meeting after the hearing.

Psst! If you want to get into the weeds, check out my Section by Section Guide to the January 2019 Draft. And please, after you've looked through the information, come tell us what you think on January 8th.

At the November 19, 2018 meeting of the City Council, we made some changes to the City's Short-Term Rental policy. The changes we made, which will go into effect on December 19, 2018, tighten up the regulations and reduce the number of non owner-occupied (a.k.a., non-hosted) short-term rentals that can exist in the City. Here's a summary of what changed, what didn't, and how it might affect you. 

Okay, so that's not exactly how John Lennon put it (and apparently Lennon wasn't even the one who first said it). But life did happen at our Health & Human Services and Public Safety committee meeting on Tuesday night, and it has altered our course as we seek to select a site for the new Homeless Services Center. 

9/11/2018 UPDATE: Linked Documents have been updated with some new additions. See the chart below. 

On Wednesday, September 4th, the City released several documents related to the new Homeless Services Center being planned for Portland. You can find these new documents (and many more)  here. 

Some of this information was covered at the Community Forum held at USM on September 8th, but we'll also be discussing these documents at the next Health & Human Services and Public Safety (HHS & PS) Committee meeting (Tuesday, September 11th, 5:30pm, City Hall, Council Chambers).

Since it's tough to tell what all the documents are without opening them, I've created an annotated list of the ones we'll be discussing on Tuesday. Hope this is helpful!

Early conversations about homelessness and the need for an improved shelter facility predate my election to the Council. But I'm proud to have played a role, alongside stakeholders, in moving this conversation forward over the last two and a half years. We're now poised to select a site for a new, state-of-the-art facility that will allow city staff to fully implement best practices and move people from homelessness to permanent housing as quickly and efficiently as possible.

This new facility is just one step in a long-range plan to address homelessness in Portland, but it is a very important step.

​Here's a brief overview of the Micro-Timeline to Date* and how I expect the process to unfold from here. 

Over the last ten months, the City Council's Health and Human Services & Public Safety Committee, which I chair, has been discussing a proposed Earned Paid Sick Leave ordinance. The proposed ordinance was drafted by the Southern Maine Workers' Center and the Maine Women's Lobby and brought forward to the Council by Mayor Strimling. 

​To date, the HHS & PS committee has held four workshop-style meetings (November 14, 2017; May 8, June 12, and July 17, 2018) and a public hearing (April 24, 2018) on the topic. We've made some progress, but we still have much to do before we're in a position to make a recommendation to the full Council. Here's what you can expect from the committee as we move into Fall 2018. 

When an item is considered by the City Council, there is always an opportunity for the public to weigh in. In fact, there are often several opportunities.

Items usually work their way through one or more other bodies, such as the Planning Board, the Historic Preservation Board, a Council Committee, or another board, committee, or task force, before coming to the Council, and public comment is accepted throughout the process. 

The City Council itself takes public comment on items in a few  different ways.

  Here's a primer on when you can expect opportunities for public comment  before the Council or a council committee, how a public hearing or public comment period works, and how to contact councilors directly if you don't wish to testify in a public setting. 

Or rather, don't bring the noise, as many of my constituents have requested over the last two years. Whether we're talking about concerts on the Maine State Pier, nightlife in the Old Port, or tunes outside tasting rooms, I've heard a lot of concerns about noise in the city over the last two years. It's because of these concerns that I've been pushing for a rewrite of the City's code as it pertains to noise.

​The good news is that a rewrite is in process. The bad news is that it's more complicated than just tweaking a few decibel levels and calling it good.