When Portland’s shelter for asylum seekers opened at 166 Riverside Industrial Parkway in November 2023, the plan was for the shelter to be operated by the city for its first year and a half, then in July 2025, operations would be taken over by the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition.

But now it’s unclear if MIRC will take over the shelter as intended.

Mufalo Chitam, executive director of MIRC, said in a phone interview last week that although her organization has the ability to take over operations, she is concerned about the safety of shelter guests in a political climate where immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees are increasingly targets for deportation.

“When a shelter is under a municipality, it is under a bigger and more stable institution than when it is under a nonprofit organization, especially a nonprofit organization that represents this clientele,” Chitam said.

Chitam said she has been discussing her concerns with the city and is waiting for the council to deliberate and come back to her with ideas. The City Council held a closed-door meeting last week to discuss the future of the facility. The mayor, city manager and most city councilors have been unwilling to talk publicly about those discussions.

No matter what, Chitam said, MIRC will continue to be involved in the shelter in whatever capacity they can, but her priority is making a plan that will be safe for the immigrant community in Portland.

DEPORTATION CONCERNS

It’s unclear, though, if shelter guests would be less likely to be deported at a shelter run by the city.

Molly Curren Rowles, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, said that from a legal standpoint, she doesn’t think it will make a difference who operates the shelter because, ultimately, Immigration and Customs Enforcement can arrest people almost anywhere if they have a warrant.

“If ICE has a warrant … then they are able to arrest people on the basis of that warrant wherever they are,” Rowles said.

Because her organization is a well-known advocate for immigrants in the state, Chitam worries that MIRC could be targeted by state and federal funding cuts.

“We are concerned that running the shelter for this population could put our organization under more scrutiny. The risk right now is high,” she said. “The risk is higher than it was when we signed the contract.”

She said her organization has been overwhelmed given recent funding cuts for immigrants at both the state and federal level.

MIRC has been providing food for the shelter since it opened in November 2023. But recent delays to their funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have impacted their ability to do that going forward. Chitam said the organization was awarded a FEMA grant in May, but the money hasn’t come through yet and she’s not sure if it will.

“That was our biggest funder for all the food. The in-kind that we get from food pantries and smaller grants really doesn’t cut it. So right now we do not have funding for food at the shelter,” she said.

FUTURE OF THE SHELTER 

Currently, the city provides most of the services at the shelter, including transportation to community health providers, cultural orientation and on-site housing navigators. The $4.9 million set aside to operate the shelter for 18 months was already allocated in past city budgets, but if the city continues operations after July, the city has previously said that a budget amendment may be necessary for continued funding.

The 179-bed shelter opened at a time when nearly 85% of people staying at the city’s homeless services center were asylum seekers. In an effort to offer resources that better served the asylum-seeking population and to create more space at the homeless shelter, the city worked with a private developer to open a separate shelter at 166 Riverside. The shelter has been consistently near capacity since it opened in 2023, according to the city.

Councilor Kate Sykes said she would support the city continuing to operate the shelter and believes there is room in the city’s budget to continue operating the shelter for an additional year and a half.

“We do a great job with the HSC and I have seen that same methodical attention to detail, concern for outcomes and evidence-based care for people at (the shelter for asylum seekers) because we’ve been doing that all along,” Sykes said.

Sykes said she’d prefer to see the city continue operations rather than hand that work over to MIRC.

“As a democratic socialist, I believe that the government’s responsibility is this, so I would far rather have the municipal government running this shelter than a nonprofit,” she said.

Councilor Wes Pelletier also said he supports the city continuing to operate the shelter as a way to ensure there is space for asylum seekers in Portland. “Whatever is needed to keep that shelter open, I am committed to doing,” Pelletier said.

Councilor Ben Grant declined to discuss the issue, saying he doesn’t have enough information yet on the situation at the shelter.

Developer Kevin Bunker owns the shelter and leased the space to the city for three years. Once that contract is up at the end of 2026, it’s unclear what the future of the shelter will be. Bunker did not respond to questions about his future plans for the space.