Portland Mayor Mark Dion is stressing homelessness and public safety as the major challenges the city is facing.
Dion articulated the need for more state homeless funding in his State of the City address Monday night. “We are running out of space,” said Dion. “Our staff is stretched too thin, and we cannot expect our taxpayers to continue to shoulder the financial burden involved in providing these services where half of the unhoused come from outside the city.”
Dion urged Portland based state lawmakers to take a stand on getting more money for the city’s homeless needs. “Therefore, I ask Portland’s legislative delegation to press its influence in Augusta and secure additional financial relief from the legislature to address our diminishing capacity to meet the increasing demands for homeless services, which by any objective measurement should be defined as a state responsibility,” Dion said.
Dion also said Portland’s police force is underfunded and needs to be restored to its authorized strength. He asked the city’s delegation to the legislature to support measures allowing city police to conduct their own training academy instead of sending officers to the state police academy. Dion said the move would speed the process of hiring officers and getting them on the streets.
Mayor Dion touched on accomplishments in the past year, such as the planting of 150 new trees in Bayside and the completion of the ReCode process, which updated Portland’s zoning laws.
Dion reeled off a series of numbers on housing, noting significant accomplishments in the past year. He said 4,500 new building permits were issued in 2024 and nearly $400,000 for new developments, which would create 300 more units, with 260 of those set aside for people earning at or below the area’s median income. He also noted the city council approved the development of an additional 439 housing units.
The mayor seemed to be critical of certain requirements in the city’s adoption of a Green New Deal. Every housing development with more than 10 units is required to set aside 25 percent of the units for affordable housing, or the developer must pay a fee of around $178,000 per unit. A number of developers have chosen to pay the fines instead offer the cheaper housing in recent years. Dion asked the city council to consider making changes to the plan.
The mayor closed his address with comments from residents about their priorities for improvements. “What I heard were pleas for better streets, fewer potholes, railroad crossings that didn’t threaten their tire alignments, slower traffic, more traffic tickets, more sidewalks, more cross walks, and better and brighter street lighting,” said Dion. He also said citizens are concerned about increased litter in the city as well as constantly increasing housing costs and public drug use with the presence of used needles.
