Long-distance bicyclists are a common summer sight at the Ellsworth Public Library, but one cyclist stood out to library custodian Edmund Murray this summer.
“He seemed kind of not well,” Murray said. “We were kind of concerned about him.”
Concern grew after the cyclist left his bike chained to the library’s bike rack for more than a week, with a bag of rotting food attached. Eventually, the bike was turned over to the police.
The police tried to call a Virginia phone number found in the bike’s satchel, but there was no response. Eventually, the cyclist returned to claim his bike, but gave little explanation why he had abandoned it for weeks.
“He just went to Canada for a while,” said Ellsworth Police Lieutenant Harold Page.
The cyclist is just one of an unknown number of drifters who meander along the state’s coast every summer. Unlike the carefree hobo mythologized in popular American pop culture, many drifters in Maine are homeless and in need of mental health care, say coastal homeless and jail advocates. And they often have a more difficult time than Maine-based homeless accessing social services.
Coastal homeless advocates agree that interstate drifters compose only a small part of the state’s homeless population, although exact figures are scarce. A 2007 baseline survey of the state’s homeless by MaineHousing lacked any question about state of origin. But the out-of-state homeless regularly trickle into and out of coastal shelters.
“We definitely have had our fair share of drifters,” said Nichole Gulowsen, residential life manager at the Emmaus Shelter in Ellsworth. She says many come for work in tourism or harvest jobs.
But as they migrate between states, drifters also migrate between state social safety systems and run the risk of slipping between the cracks. There’s often a lag-time before a state’s social services kicks in for new residents, leaving drifters lacking access to all care but in the emergency room.
That lag can prove especially problematic for the mentally ill, said Carol Carothers, executive director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness Maine. Often, successful treatment for mental illness depends on creating strong personal connections with caregivers, something that’s hard to do for drifters. And the mentally ill sometimes are prone to avoid help because of memories of involuntary committals or inadequate treatment, she said.
“You’re more likely to work well with a doctor you know than one you don’t know,” said Carothers.
If mental illness is left untreated, it can result in behavior that can lead to incarceration. Judy Garvey, director of Volunteers for Hancock County Jail Residents, has worked with a handful of interstate transients in jail. Some come to Maine because of the promise of a job or a place to stay, but they find their opportunities evaporate once they arrive. With no money to go back home, they stay in Maine and often end up in the penal system, Garvey said.
“Often homelessness is just a stop into the jail,” Garvey said.
The case of Elias Elias (his legal name) illustrates Garvey’s point. Elias was first spotted several years ago drinking alcohol around the Union River, sleeping outside and accosting people on the streets of Ellsworth. Soon, he landed in jail.
He later drifted to other states, but returned to Ellsworth and begged for food and shelter from several people. He drifted again and ended up in a Vermont jail. While away from Maine, he called and sent rambling and paranoid letters to those he knew in Ellsworth, asking for money. This summer, Elias wanted to return to Ellsworth and called a resident three times, asking to be picked up at a Bangor bus terminal. Shortly afterwards, he began sending letters from a Maine jail.
Garvey says she often worries when she loses touch with the transients she’s helped. Recently, she’s been preoccupied with the fate of a young man she helped get home after a stint in jail. She hasn’t heard from him in a while, and in her line of volunteer work, that’s often not a good sign.
“We don’t know if he’s alive or dead,” she said. “They just disappear and you don’t know.”
Communication between the state’s roughly 40 homeless shelters is spotty, and communication among nationwide shelters is nearly non-existent, coastal homeless advocates say. In lieu of a coordinated effort to deal with the migrant homeless population, Garvey says that homeless advocates must tackle the problems on an individual basis. She credited H.O.M.E. Incorporated in Orland for providing the best help to transients in the area. Jackie Burpee, an H.O.M.E. coordinator, said H.O.M.E. tries to treat individuals on a holistic basis.
“Our first priority is to make sure you’re warm, clothed, and you have a safe place to stay,” Burpee said.
But even H.O.M.E. has a hard time treating the needs of all drifters effectively. Burpee recalled how a woman with untreated diabetes came recently by bus from New York City and bounced around two shelters before drifting back to the city again.
“We just couldn’t help her here,” Burpee said.
A July 28 New York Times story revealed that the administration of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has paid the way to relocate 550 homeless families to other states and countries since 2007, including relocating two families to Maine. Some homeless advocates contend the shuffle simply cuts off the homeless from social service benefits. Burpee, having watched the disruption interstate drifting has caused some H.O.M.E. residents, vehemently agrees. “That just disgusted me,” she said of the news.