BANGOR, Maine (AP) — A Maine city plans to issue trespass orders to people who do not leave a homeless encampment under a highway bridge by Dec. 1.
More than a dozen people live next to the Penobscot River under the Interstate 395 bridge that goes from Bangor to Brewer, the Bangor Daily News reported. Bangor officials want to clear the encampment and have asked people living there to leave, the paper reported.
City officials said they want the camp cleared in part because of the coming winter. Assistant City Manager Courtney O’Donnell said emergency workers won’t be able to access the area when snow and ice arrives.
The issue of how to address the homeless population in Bangor has been a major theme in city politics recently. The executive director of the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter has said there are likely more unsheltered homeless residents in Bangor now than there have ever been.
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