Bangor City Council on Thursday moved to pause a planned Dec. 19 closure of an encampment along the railroad after hearing public-health, police and fire officials say the site presents safety and service-delivery challenges while staff reported the overnight population had dropped to about 20 people.

City Manager (S2) told the council that counts had fallen from the mid-40s in recent weeks to roughly 20 people staying overnight and that outreach teams were seeing more individuals use warming centers. "The gravity of that sort of safety issue and crisis situation has improved substantially over the course of the last 2 weeks," S2 said during the workshop, but he urged continued work on strategies to move residents into housing.

Jen Gunnerman, director of Bangor Public Health and Community Services, described a by-name list maintained by PATH, the HOME team, BCAT and City Outreach and said outreach teams engage the site regularly. "Of the 20 people that are still in that space ... 6 people have a housing voucher," Gunnerman said, adding that several others have been matched to vouchers but have not completed paperwork.

Public-safety officials urged caution about leaving people on or near active rail. The fire/EMS representative (S10) said his priority is preventing physical harm and highlighted access problems during a recent cardiac-arrest response near the tracks. "When you combine that with the railroad tracks ... it just, it makes me very scared for these people," S10 said.

Councilors debated the trade-offs between an immediate sweep and a delayed, planned approach. Several members argued closures have not worked in past local efforts and urged a pause so staff can consult experts, refine who would be allowed in any interim site and assess the city's capacity to run a sanctioned outdoor space. Councilor (S3) argued that shutting the camp without supports risks repeating past failures: "Closures do not work. They never have worked. It's time to do something different."

Councilors also raised operational questions: who can lawfully remove people from railroad-owned property, whether the city can move people to its adjacent parcel, how many people the city parcel could safely accommodate and whether a 24/7 on-site presence would be required to enforce rules and maintain safety. Police representative (S6) told the council the railroad's law-enforcement arm had said it does not want people on its property; the council asked staff to seek a firm, written date or an acceptable alternative from the railroad.

Recognizing there is room in warming shelters but that some residents decline congregate settings, Gunnerman and others described barriers to rapid housing placement, including incomplete paperwork, landlord hesitancy due to eviction/criminal histories, and limited case-management capacity once people are housed. Staff identified current city-provided costs as outreach and city-staff time, bus tickets and material supplies; Gunnerman noted out-of-state authorized-encampment models have shown per-person costs of roughly $2,000 per month but said there are no Maine-specific models to use as a template.

The council reached a consensus to "pause the nineteenth" and directed staff to continue outreach, request clarification from the railroad, perform a site assessment and return with more information at a follow-up meeting Monday. The council also discussed recruiting a full-time homeless response coordinator to lead strategic planning and implementation; staff said current funding for a dedicated position ends in 2026 and that the role would need incorporation into future operating budgets.

The council adjourned after nearly two hours of discussion, with staff expected to report back with railroad feedback, a rough feasibility assessment for moving people to the city-owned parcel and next-meeting materials.