The city of Portland has ordered a property owner to clean up a hazardous waste site left behind by an intravenous drug user — including recently used hypodermic syringes — or face unclear enforcement actions by the Department of Public Works.
According to an email exchange obtained by the Maine Wire, a city official instructed the owner of 257 Oxford Street to clean up the trash behind an apartment building — which included used needles, clothing, food waste, a big screen TV, and empty alcohol containers.
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The property owner shared with the Maine Wire video taken of the unnamed individual injecting drugs into his hand shortly before passing out again on the nearby mattress.
The author of the email, Community Services Coordinator Sarah Colton, allowed that the city would come by to pick up the city bike, which the drug user appeared to have purloined, and that a municipal employee would also take care of the mattress that he had somehow managed to position beside the dumpster.
The rest of the garbage, however, was the property owner’s responsibility.
Colton even included in her email a picture of the site — including the “sleeping” drug user on his mattress.
“I just came back from vacation and was [sic] received a complaint about your address. When I went over there, this is what I found,” Colton wrote, appending the following image.
“It needs to be picked up please,” Colton said.
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At no point in the communication did the Community Services Coordinator address the presence of the obviously distressed drug user who appeared to be passed out on a bare mattress behind the building.
Colton did not respond to an inquiry from the Maine Wire asking what enforcement actions the city would take against the property owner if he refused her order, what liability the city might face if the property owner were poked with a used hypodermic needle, or whether the city provides any resources or training to the individuals it orders to clean up after intravenous drug users.
“A set of homeless people has been openly living here, right next to a building full of kids,” the property owner wrote in an email to Colton.
“This trash strewn everywhere is primarily a result of these homeless individuals the City of Portland has allowed to exist in this area,” he wrote.
“There are needles everywhere.”
A review of Google Maps shows that the location of the site from the photograph is within 500 feet of Preble Street, a taxpayer-funded homeless shelter that in fiscal year 2022 received more than $17.6 million in taxpayer funding.
A biohazard because of Portland and State policies should be cleaned by the city.
The city should at least go clean up the drug paraphernalia.
Kicking out the illegals and ending endless welfare would help.
And what happened to Dion’s tough talk on bums??
And is this a shocker to anyone? Portland sucks now…it used to be a decent city 15 years ago.
Portland has certainly come a long way since I grew up there in the 50s and 60s. It’s what we get when the residents elect Commies in Democrats clothing.
It is the city job to keep drugs out of the city
$17.6 million could buy or build an apartment building. Bet most of that went to salary and benefits for the non profiteers.