Plans to convert the Green Street United Methodist Church, above, into a 40-bed homeless shelter and community center was rejected March 12 by the Augusta Planning Board. Shortly after that, the Augusta Task Force on Homelessness was created. On Tuesday, approximately 25 homeless people gathered at a task force session at Lithgow Library to discuss barriers they face in obtaining housing and assistance. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file

AUGUSTA — The barriers homeless people face in finding housing are often the same obstacles keeping them from finding jobs, escaping addiction, avoiding stigma, and addressing physical and mental health problems, people said Tuesday evening at a listening session held by a task force aiming to help.

Plans to convert the Green Street United Methodist Church, above, into a 40-bed homeless shelter and community center was rejected March 12 by the Augusta Planning Board. Shortly after that, the Augusta Task Force on Homelessness was created. On Tuesday, approximately 25 homeless people gathered at a task force session at Lithgow Library to discuss barriers they face in obtaining housing and assistance. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file

Some of the roughly 25 homeless people who gathered at the Augusta Task Force on Homelessness session at Lithgow Library said those barriers can lead to a vicious cycle that is hard to escape, especially with the ongoing shortage, and escalating cost, of housing.

The task force was formed this summer with a goal of better coordinating real solutions and recommending steps to improve the lives of homeless people in the area.

“There are no wrong answers, we just need to know the truth about what’s going on and hopefully we can come up with solutions that benefit everybody in the community,” Jonathan Reynolds, a facilitator of the session, told those who attended.

Several people said housing is in such short supply. and is expensive even if they have housing vouchers to help with rent, that they still can’t find apartments or other housing. And they face discrimination and stigma because they are homeless and that makes it harder for them to get ahead and improve their lives.

Q.T. Bisson, who said he is homeless in Augusta, said it’s hard for homeless people to find places to shower, and somewhere to be during the day when the Augusta Overnight Emergency Warming Center is closed. He said homeless people are turned away by others due to the way they dress or talk, and the rules they’re expected to follow in order to get help can change, which can put them back out on the street.

“Now there’s a blizzard coming, and where do you go, you’re hiding in corners of stairways, anywhere there’s a nook so you can get out of the wind,” Bisson said.

Keri Howell, who said she was living in an apartment through Bread of Life Ministries after being homeless for nine months, said she felt safe and secure there but still worried about her friends, who she said became like family, still living on the streets.

She suggested Augusta should have something like a shelter in Portland, offering not just overnight shelter for homeless people, but also a range of services including health care, case managers, drug recovery services and meals. As well as storage space where homeless people could leave some of their belongings, so they don’t have to carry them around on their backs all day, or risk them getting stolen.

“What if we were to bring something like that here to Augusta, to make sure people have a safe place to go, have case managers onsite, recovery services … that’d be tremendous for the homeless community here,” Howell said. She also suggested involving homeless people in projects improving such a facility, such as by painting, so they feel involved and connected, like it’s more of a home for them. “Something to get you off the streets so it represents a place they can be at home, safe and secure. Because where they are now is not a safe place.”

The failure of a proposal to do something along those lines prompted the creation of the Augusta Task Force on Homelessness. In March the Augusta Planning Board rejected a proposal to convert the Green Street United Methodist Church into the United Community Living Center, a nonprofit homeless shelter. The proposal was a 40-bed homeless shelter offering a range of services to help people find jobs and permanent housing, address mental health and substance use problems, and help get them off the streets where they may cause problems.

Wick Johnson, chairman of the task force, said the task force came about on the heels of the community living center’s rejection, to look at gaps that could be filled and come up with potential solutions that could help people who are homeless in the area.

Amanda Bartlett of Augusta, housing consultant with Developers Collaborative and former executive director of the Augusta Housing Authority, who was hired to facilitate the task force’s work, said they hope to have a final plan and recommendations ready to deliver to the Augusta City Council in March.

“I want to assure you something is happening,” Bartlett said. “We’re creating a plan with real action steps so we can implement things that will make your lives better in the community.”

The work of the task force is funded by $20,000 approved by the Augusta City Council, as well as $25,000 raised privately, Johnson said.

Future listening sessions are planned for Oct. 17 for homeless service providers, Oct. 22 for the business community, and Oct. 23 for an open community forum.