Question

Maine has seen pressure on emergency shelters as homelessness rises

Answer 1

This is a true claim. An article by Maine Public discusses the rise in homelessness across the state, stating "a significant spike compared to previous years." The article quotes Cullen Ryan, the executive director for Community Housing of Maine, saying that the has been "unable to find places for people to go." This is further supplemented by the article stating that there is a "lack of housing options across the entire state." 

Homelessness on the rise in Maine, according to 2022 survey | Maine Public

Another article by The Associated Press discusses a new homeless shelter built in Maine. The article states that the shelter was built "as Portland grapples with hundreds of asylum seekers who have arrived in the new year and are vying for beds with others experiencing homelessness." 

Maine's largest city opens new homeless shelter | AP News

Based on the rise in homelessness, as well as the state building new shelters, it is reasonable to infer that Maine is seeing pressure to provide more housing for their growing homeless population.

Answer 2

Historically, Maine has been one of the states to have an extremely low rate of homelessness. However, during the pandemic, homelessness grew nearly 110% and 85% since 2010. There are various sources online that confirm that homelessness is a rising problem in the state of Maine. Here is a source that dives into deeper detail about the issue.

https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/local/housing/preble-street-grace-street-ministries-maine-state-housing-authority-addressing-homelessness-crisis-in-portland-across-maine/97-51e0dbd8-8515-4f49-af70-6eb0cad99688

While there is no information on whether there is more pressure on emergency shelters in Maine, it can be part of the chain of effect since homelessness is on the rise. I personally think that there is a high chance of this being a possibility because Maine has not had to deal with homelessness being as big of an issue in the past so they might have trouble scaling to deal with the situation at hand.