From: Dennis Ferrante <[email protected]> Date: Wed, Dec 9, 2020 at 4:16 PM Subject: This Is Out of Control To: <[email protected]>, <[email protected]> This is happening daily all around 55 Portland Street. Please refer to pictures on the following pages. Rachel Minkovitz <[email protected]> Dec 9, 2020, 11:40:58 AM (2 days ago) to [email protected] Hi Portland Planning Board, I’m a Portland resident and I’m emailing to urge you to approve the Preble Street conditional use application to turn the 5 Portland Street facility into a 24/7 Wellness Shelter. Unhoused people deserve a place to be safe and they deserve care, and during the winter, they’re especially vulnerable. Please approve this application. Best, Rachel Minkovitz Rachel Minkovitz <[email protected]> Dec 9, 2020, 11:40:58 AM (2 days ago) to [email protected] Hi Portland Planning Board, I’m a Portland resident and I’m emailing to urge you to approve the Preble Street conditional use application to turn the 5 Portland Street facility into a 24/7 Wellness Shelter. Unhoused people deserve a place to be safe and they deserve care, and during the winter, they’re especially vulnerable. Please approve this application. Best, Rachel Minkovitz Riley McNeil <[email protected]> Dec 8, 2020, 9:50:44 AM (3 days ago) to [email protected] I respectfully request that the City of Portland Planning Board approve the Preble Street conditional use application in order that its facility at 5 Portland Street undergo renovations needed for a new 24/7 Wellness Shelter. With so many people sleeping outside during a public health emergency and as winter approaches, this initiative is desperately needed. Preble Street is not asking for City funds and is only seeking Planning Board approval for necessary COVID-informed renovations to the building. Please do not leave people out in the cold. Best, Riley McNeil Susan Payne <[email protected]> Dec 14, 2020, 4:52:09 PM (yesterday) to [email protected], [email protected] To: The Portland Planning Board and Mayor Snyder I am wri ng to support the condi onal use permit for the Preble St. 24/7 shelter. As I understand it, this will allow Preble St. to meet the ever growing needs of Portland’s unhoused people. Preble St. has been doing an heroic job of serving this popula on but, as we know, the pandemic and the economic downturn have greatly increased the number of people living without homes. Although I don’t live in Portland, I come to the city frequently. It is my hub for church, entertainment, culture, and educa on. It breaks my heart to see the growing number of people begging on the streets and camping in the park. I cannot imagine how hard this is for them, especially with winter coming. Portland has been bearing the burden of this problem, but many of us in the surrounding area are trying to help. Like other members of First Parish in Portland Unitarian Universalist Church, and other people of faith, I donate to Preble St. Last week, the Sea Change Chorale, a social jus ce signing group based in Portland, created an online holiday concert and sing along to raise money for Preble St. Sea Change members live in Portland and in 12 surrounding towns and ci es. We all recognize the need to help out, but we also know that private dona ons alone cannot meet the need. For that reason, I sincerely hope that you will vote to approve the permit, and that Portland will con nue to be a beacon for all of us in this difficult me. Yours truly, Susan Payne Cape Elizabeth Dec 8, 2020, 7:16:21 AM (3 days ago) Talya Davis <[email protected]> to [email protected] To the Planning Board: As we head into winter, it is imperative that we provide adequate shelter to our most vulnerable residents. I urge you to work with Preble Street Resource Center to approve additional shelter space ASAP. Thank you for your consideration, Talya Davis George Street Portland Tim Stokes <[email protected]> Dec 8, 2020, 9:47:08 PM (3 days ago) to [email protected] Hi. This year has been very trying. I commute 30+ miles to work at a restaurant on Preble Street since rent in Portland has become unsustainable. The restaurant I have worked at for the past 3 years has always been close to everything at the shelter; many of the employees are regulars and in non-covid times, we provided a temporary pitstop for the more well mannered of the homeless population - especially in cold times. This year, we can’t do that. And because of lack of action by the city, neither can the completely willing staff of Preble Street resource center. This past week alone multiple unsheltered people came into the restaurant disheveled and and messed up, one of them was maskless refusing to leave and harassing customers. Many of these people struggle with addiction, and without a place to reliably go at the end of the day they are more likely to use, becoming harmful to both themselves and others, such as our staff and our customers. This is your responsibility. Though converting the resource center to a 24/7 shelter for 40 people does not solve this problem, it is a starting point; it is a point of relief for both the homeless population and all of the businesses between marginal way and monument square - that is a lot of places, a lot of people. Most importantly it provides humane conditions for a few of Portland’s homeless and restores important jobs to people who fervently desire to do their work helping these people who struggle. This is a much bigger issue, one with an ugly history in Portland. Open Preble Street as a 24/7 Wellness Shelter, then open another one. Tim Stokes Acacia Wakefield <[email protected]> Dec 9, 2020, 3:47:13 PM (yesterday) to [email protected] To whom it may concern, Hello there! I’m messaging you asking for you to please allow the wellness shelter to be built. We need this kind of care for our homeless population in Portland. Especially as so many people are navigating these terribly difficult times. You can judge a place based on how they treat the most vulnerable members of their society. Thank you for your consideration! Best regards, Acacia Alex Fernandes <[email protected]> Dec 8, 2020, 10:40:40 AM (3 days ago) to [email protected] Hello, I am writing you today to ask you to please approve the application to convert the Preble Street Resource center into a 24/7 wellness shelter as the people of Portland Maine are asking. This will house and support 40 people. Have you ever known what it's like to be out in the cold with inadequate clothing for 1 hour? 2? How about sleeping out there? This will really help someone feel like they matter, and that the world doesn't have to be cruel all the time. Thank you so much. -Al Anne Pringle <[email protected]> Dec 9, 2020, 4:08:08 PM (yesterday) to Planning Board FYI. Just forwarding a report published today on SeeClickFix: Description Excessive trash in front of 55 Portland St. left by the people handing out there. The owner committed to keeping it clean but it usually looks this way lately. Please find a way to keep them in compliance. Daniel Rosenheck <[email protected]> Dec 8, 2020, 9:59:27 PM (3 days ago) to [email protected] Hello, I am a resident of Portland, and I believe that providing a shelter at 5 Portland street would greatly benefit the Portland homeless community and the community at large. Getting people off the streets and into a safe space will help us grow as a community. I hope the vote is yes on Shelter at the old Resource Center. Thanks, Daniel Danielle Dellaquila <[email protected]> Dec 11, 2020, 7:12:34 PM (4 days ago) to [email protected] I wanted to take a moment to say that I support the new shelter on Preble St. What a wonderful and well needed resource it would be for the city of Portland. Hank you for all the efforts that people are fighting to see this project through. Sincerely, Danielle Dellaquila 75 Cumberland Ave Portland, ME Dear Mayor Kate Snyder, I am writing with grave concerns about our neighborhood dealing with the Loitering and illegal activities at 55 Portland Street and the repercussions that are affecting my neighborhood are untenable. Over the past two weeks there has been an increase of individuals hanging out and around the area of 55 Portland Street, using drugs, fighting, camping and littering 24/7. The compounded daily influx of people doing unlawful activities and hanging around all day and night is cause for stress and anxiety. I assume a lot of these individuals have issues of substance use and mental disorders, they're loud and disorderly. I live and run my two businesses out of my residents about a block away, on a one way street and in order for my clients and guest to get to me they need to go through that area. Needless to say, driving through and seeing this activity gives them pause. I could only imagine what the neighboring residents and business must be going through in that area. A couple of weeks ago I did call Preble Street Resource Center and talked with Andrew Bove about my concerns for making 55 Portland Street a food drop-off.