Billie-Jo Burgess, who had been homeless for 18 years, sits inside her new apartment at Huston Commons on Monday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald
In her Portland studio apartment, Billie-Jo Burgess has plants lined up on the windowsill. A blue note stuck to a kitchen cabinet reads: "Smile, you're alive." A porcelain doll is propped up against the television.
"I've had her since I was 20," Burgess said. "I brought her with me through everything."
Everything. For Burgess that's included raising three kids, a car accident and an opioid prescription that led to a heroin addiction and 18 years of homelessness.
She gave up custody. She was assaulted, slept in snowbanks, watched friends freeze to death.
But it had to get bad for Burgess, 49, before she could land one of the 85 site-based housing first apartments in the state last October. It's a type of housing that provides 24/7 support services for people exiting chronic homelessness and is extremely limited in Maine. Only those in the most dire circumstance are given priority.
Related What is 'housing first'?
There are more than 250 people on a waitlist for the three programs, all in Portland, all run by the nonprofits Avesta Housing and Preble Street.
Advertisement
The combination of incredibly high demand, a slow-moving waitlist and the reality that chronic homelessness often comes with long-term health issues, means that by the time people do move in, they sometimes don't have much time left.
Ali Lovejoy, vice president of mission advancement at Preble Street, said people have been entering these programs in increasingly bad shape, and dying at higher rates. From 2018-20 there were about three deaths per year across the three programs. Since 2020, that number has tripled to about nine per year.
"Passing away is the most common reason that people leave the program," said Lovejoy.
The average length of stay at their three properties ranges from four years at the newest building, Huston Commons, to seven and a half years at Logan Place, which opened in 2005.
It's rare, she said, for people to be evicted. Some go on to more independent living situations. A handful move in with family or into a sober-living environment. The rest stay until the end of their lives.
But, Lovejoy explained, there is no requirement or expectation that people move on to more independent living. And, realistically, she said, it won't be possible for everyone.
Advertisement
"If we can provide people some dignity and peace at the end of their lives, that's a success, too," she said.
Huston Commons in Portland, one of three site-based housing first programs in the state. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald
EARLY INTERVENTION
The only requirement to get an apartment in one of these buildings is to be chronically homeless (though Florence House only accepts women). Residents don't have to be sober, they don't have to be in treatment, they don't have to be employed.
Staff are stationed at the front desk 24/7 to help with whatever residents need, whether that be conflict mediation with a neighbor or help scheduling a doctor's appointment.
"We have some people who really require an assisted living level of care," said Lovejoy.
Preble Street also works with Greater Portland Health to provide regular medical, and when necessary, hospice care.
Related Housing-first strategy ties stable residences with social services
A 2017 study published by the Public Library of Science found that the average lifespan of a homeless person is about 17 ½ years shorter than that of the general population. The study found that homeless men, on average, live to be 56, while homeless women live to be 52, with the most common cause of death being circulatory system disease, which encompasses a variety of conditions including blood clots, strokes and heart attacks.
Advertisement
Other studies have shown that even when people enter into housing first programs, they die at about the same rate as those still living outdoors.
"The reality is homelessness is really hard on people's bodies," said Lovejoy. "The folks we're taking are in really rough shape. People often come in with untreated health issues, they've been disconnected from regular health care for years. You have people with untreated diabetes, you have people with liver disease, people with cancer."
Lovejoy said that while the need continues to ramp up and waitlists grow longer, people are becoming sicker and their circumstances are worsening. The program prioritizes people with the greatest need who have spent the most time living outdoors.
"If we could intervene sooner, before someone spent 20 years living outside, that could make all the difference," said Lovejoy.
Related Portland mourns roughly 50 homeless people who died in 2024
And soon, earlier intervention might be possible. During the last legislative session, the Joint Select Committee on Housing passed a bill establishing the Housing First Fund within the Department of Health and Human Services. It pulls money from the real estate transfer tax -- a tax on property transfers in Maine -- by diverting half of the dollars that previously went into the General Fund.
That money will be used to pay for support services and construction costs for new housing first developments throughout the state.
Advertisement
When all is said and done, Lovejoy said, that money could support about 400 new site-based housing first apartments run by eight to 12 new programs across the state. The state has already put out a request for proposals.
One proposed development at 197 Oxford St. in Portland could be the first to utilize the new fund. The project would create 28 new housing first units, in addition to other affordable and market-rate units. The proposal is still being considered by the planning board and would need City Council approval to be completed.
A DIFFERENT LIGHT
When Burgess first moved into Huston Commons, it was the first time she'd consistently slept inside in more than a decade. The adjustment wasn't easy for her. As night would fall and she'd find herself alone, her throat would constrict with anxiety.
"I felt smothered, like I couldn't breathe. I had to be outside. It was like the worst anxiety, like I was trapped," she said.
She would wander the streets at night. In the cold, in the rain. It took six months for her to feel comfortable sleeping in her bed. But gradually, she settled in.
Billie-Jo Burgess sits inside her apartment, where she has reconnected with her children and grandson, and hopes to keep working on her sobriety. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald
She hopes someday she'll be able to move on to a more independent living situation, but right now Huston Commons is a good place for her.
Advertisement
Burgess said she has some health issues after years of living outside. She has an autoimmune disease and sporadic seizures. She has bipolar disorder and is still working on her sobriety. She struggles with back pain.
"I wrecked myself out there, my brain is fried," she said.
When she told staff she was scared to be alone in her apartment because she was worried she could have a seizure, they offered to come check in on her periodically. That made her feel safer.
Related Preble Street's housing-first program serves as model for helping homeless Mainers
Now she can focus on other things, like building relationships with her kids and 7-year-old grandson.
She feels like she might have a chance to do better with him. He could grow up knowing her not as an addict, not as a homeless person, but simply as his loving grandmother.
"I want my grandson to say one day 'Dad, I want to go to Nana's,' and for my kid to say 'OK, let's go.' That is my dream."
Advertisement
She said she's using less than she has in years, too. It's easier to get sober from the comfort of her apartment.
But she said the biggest change in her life is this feeling that crept up slowly and then washed over her all at once: that a better life is possible, that she deserves one.
"I finally feel worthy, and this place has helped me feel that way," she said.
Whether Burgess stays one year or 10 or 30 in that apartment, whether she lives out the rest of her days there or moves away, she said her life has been immeasurably altered.
"I never thought I'd make it to 50, but now, I don't want to die. I want my kids to know that I can do better than I have done."
Copy the Story Link Related Headlines
Send questions/comments to the editors.
filed under: homelessness, housing, Portland, preble street Related Stories Latest Articles