- MaineHealth adopted a chronic disease model to treat substance use disorder.

In that model, we have specialists, primarily psychiatrists who are fellowship trained in addiction, who work in our hubs with their teams that include social workers, peers, medical assistants, and they treat patients who are in the more acute phases of their disease.

Patients then transition to primary care practices, working collaboratively with a primary care clinician and the integrated behavioral health specialist and peers.

In addition to that, we have research and academic medicine, we have a substance use steering committee that is comprised of clinicians from across our system to identify the right measures.

We have over 70% retention rate for patients in our hubs and spokes.

And we're working every day to increase that number.

We are all taking as many steps as we can to address this very challenging problem.

- [Narrator] This episode is sponsored by MaineHealth.

The stories you're about to hear are true.

The struggles, losses and paths to healing, all woven into Voices of Hope The Rugged Road to Recovery.

(gentle music) Beyond Maine's beautiful landscape there's a dark, desperate crisis, a substance abuse epidemic.

We set out to capture the faces and stories caught up in it, and discovered there is a science to addiction.

There is also a way out.

These are the voices of hope.

- [Mark] Today will be interesting.

It's always a little bit more interesting on the first day of the month.

- We have local areas that we like to make our rounds in.

We'll make sure that we have all the supplies that we need to go throughout our day.

We deal with a lot of wound care in the community with substance use disorder, so, a lot of abscesses, and we like to have all our supplies that we are required to have there.

So should be a good day.

- [Narrator] Megan and Mark are paramedics with the Portland Fire Department.

They also spend many hours on top of their regular shifts working as a team with the Mobile Medical Outreach Unit, MMO.

They serve the homeless population, and those with substance use disorders.

What they do has resulted in a reduction of emergency calls into the Portland Fire Department.

- In the case of an overdose, it often comes in similar to a cardiac arrest, not breathing, unknown life status.

And that gets the full response, which is an ambulance, at least one fire company, but generally two, the chief and our EMS supervisor, and then police to stabilize the scene.

So, I mean, you're already talking 12 to 15 people, including police, if not 20, in that initial response.

- [Narrator] The MMO team's work means fewer crews diverted away from what could be larger emergencies.

- For those who are diabetics, or for those who have a history of substance use disorder and carry needles on them quite frequently, we can hand out these sharp shuttles to them so that they can keep the community and themselves safe by keeping their needles in a device like this.

Needles are a huge problem in our community.

They're strown throughout the streets.

So we like to keep them as safe as possible.

- [Narrator] Members of the mobile medical outreach scour Portland streets, searching for people who might need help, including a woman who is currently calling a blue tarp her home, her belongings underneath in grocery carts.

- Hey Rebecca?

Hey, it's Megan, the paramedic with the fire department that you just spoke with a little while ago this morning.

I just wanted to come check on you, see how you were doing.

I saw Spurwink was just leaving.

Yeah.

Are you in a better place?

- So, Rebecca, what's the plan?

We know you're kind of in a predicament right now, and how can we help you?

- So is your plan to hang here, or do you think you're gonna work your way up...

Along the sidewalk there was also several drug paraphernalia around her, so they've been actively using in an unsafe environment.

- How about we talk to officer Bennis, and try to get you a timeframe, and then you can kind of figure out a plan of how long you might be in this situation?

Would that help you?

- And so she's emotionally distraught this morning, and in a little bit of a crisis situation.

So we were working with her to try and get her to a place they call the living room here in the city.

It's a Spurwink Crisis Center.

and they have nursing staff there.

They have psychiatry from nine to five.

- And the shelter hasn't been available for her if she needs, but they suggested it's time she needs to downsize a little bit.

- [Officer] Yeah, probably.

- Thanks Bill.

- A gentleman just walked by in the area, grabbed a tourniquet off the ground that he just found and put it in his pocket.

So he's probably gonna use that later on in the day.

So it's pretty typical for them to find paraphernalia on the street and reuse it.

So this is where they're hunkered down.

- In a 911 setting we don't have the time to dedicate to look into housing, to look into detox, to look into rehab, to call the resources, to figure out the avenues that we can help these individuals in a long term capacity.

And MMO gives me that opportunity to focus on helping the citizens in the long term.

- [Radio] (indistinct) for a blue Toyota with a male passed out behind the wheel.

- All right, so we're gonna go to this.

- [Radio] (indistinct) intersection of Chestnut Street at Oxford Street for a blue Toyota.

- We were just there.

- We were just there.

- I think the guy standing on the corner was the dealer.

- Yeah, I think so too.

All right, so we're gonna head back to where we were just- - Just at.

- Just a 'cause our engine and ambulance from in town is headed there right now for a male unconscious in a vehicle, so sounds like it might be an overdose.

So we're just gonna go see if we can assist them in any way possible.

- [Narrator] But as with many calls like this, once they arrive the scene has been cleared.

- [Megan] Not that one.

- [Narrator] Soon, they're off to another call.

- How much have you had to drink today?

Quite a bit?

What's your drink of choice?

- Just beers.

- Just beers?

- Yes, ma'am.

- The gentleman had had one of his cousins had passed away recently, and I think it was quite impactful on him wanting to make changes, which we see a day after day, that it's, death brings impact to a lot of the addicted, whether it's alcohol, opioids, that hits close to home cause they know they're not far from it.

- Yes.

- I think today, today is a good day for you.

You know why you might have had a little bit of, a little bit to drink and you're going through a tough time, but you're ready to take that next step, and I think that that's big for you.

Hopefully we can get you the help that you need today.

Get you sober.

Okay.

Okay, sounds good.

- [Mark] You take care, bud.

- Thank you so much, Katie.

You're gonna go with Katie for the rest of the day, okay?

- We'll get you inside.

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

We'll check in with you later, okay?

- Okay.

- Sounds great.

- One day at a time, Joe.

- Are you okay if we follow up with you with Milestone, make sure you're doing okay?

- Sure.

- Okay, sounds great.

Thanks, Katie, appreciate your help.

- What's your names again?

- Megan and Mark.

- One of the most challenging things with Mobile Medical Outreach is time and resources.

If we've got someone that wants to detox from alcohol today, we don't have the resources that are needed to make that happen.

And when someone's in a window that wants detox, that window can be very small.

And if you don't grab a hold of it it might be another week, another month, another year, or never that you have that opportunity to get them into detox.

Especially in the shade, you wanna be in the sun.

If anybody wants to make a difference, if they could do one day on the streets with us, they'd get a better perspecitve of what's going on.

I feel like people are uneducated on what's actually going on in the streets, and if they were to see that they could probably figure out ways to make an impact and help.

- Are you keep, are you keeping an eye on how far the red is, the redness is going?

- [Woman] No.

- Okay.

We need additional services.

Along with mental health we need detox programs.

With our encounters day to day with these folks they cry out to us, they want detox, they want help.

There's nowhere for them to turn.

Call Kelly.

I am very hopeful for you, Melissa, okay?

- Thank you.

Thank you so much.

- You're very welcome.

You take care, okay?

All right.

Okay.

- 10 weeks pregnant?

- Yeah.

- Are you excited?

What's going on?

I became a police officer four years ago, primarily because I didn't wanna do what someone would consider the cliche reason, is I wanna do something that makes a difference.

- This will be my 20th year as a patrol officer.

And as far as drugs, when I first started I had no idea how much crack was out there.

Everyone you arrested seems like you had crack on 'em.

- [Narrator] Officers Jesse Dana and Michael Bennis work for the Portland Police Department.

They both patrol the streets on foot in the city's Bayside area.

Each came to policing in different ways, and at different times in their lives, but what they share is a desire to help.

- Most everyone that wants to be a police officer is to actually help people.

That's what we all say when we are interviewed when we start out, and most of the time it's what we still wanna do when we're getting close to retiring.

- I had spent 10 years working in corporate America, sitting behind a desk crunching numbers, and I didn't feel that that career was fulfilling to me, and so I wanted to do something where I really could make a difference, where I really could have an impact on people's lives and create relationships with people no matter what situation that they are in in life.

- [Narrator] The Portland Police Department finds itself in a similar employee crisis plaguing so many companies and organizations.

They would be fully staffed with 158 officers, but correctly have 23 openings.

The pressure to cover more with less is having an impact.

- I think you absolutely have to be a compassionate individual to be in this career.

So since 2016 we've gad 268 overdose deaths just in the city of ---.

I know, and then in 2021 last year we went to 330 overdose calls for service, where someone calls or that someone is having an overdose.

Just last night we had two people die from overdoses so I just want people to really be aware that this is happening every single day, all the time, it's just how it is.

- We as police officers, we're always looking at the bigger picture.

It's not just the snapshot of the moment, it's what's gonna impact this person from the moment we interact with them to what's gonna happen to them months or even years later down the line, and trying to find the best place to have them go to get the resources that they need.

When you have a guy who's camping out on the street, and letting his foot actually deteriorate until it had to be amputated because of drugs, I don't think a lot of people understand that.

- 100% it has an impact on our mental health, what's going on with our families, and you have to find a resource in order to relieve the stress that you deal with on a daily basis.

- I've seen lots of overdoses, lots of overdoses.

With Narcan though it's, people are dying in hotel rooms and in ally ways and behind dumpsters when they do it by themselves.

But if people overdose on the street they're usually up and gone before we get there because there's, Narcan is so prevalent.

They give it out, I'm not saying it's a complete bad thing obviously because it saves lives, but it also gives people a false sense of security sometimes because they'll be out here overdosed, and then they'll go somewhere else and overdose when someone is not there.

- The police officer on average has 1000 times more traumatic experiences that they're exposed to than the average person.

And I can say without question that one day of my job could have a more profound impact negatively seeing the things that I see than one person is exposed to in their entire lifetime.

- I have a theory that most really addicted people, they have something missing, or they have too much trauma in their life where they can't deal with stuff, so a lot of people say it's mental illness, but it's not even really that.

It's like they have too much childhood trauma, they're missing love, they're missing purpose, they're missing something in their life that makes it too painful to exist.

- People ask me all the time being a police officer, does doing this job get to you?

Does it eat away at you seeing the things that you see?

And what I try to tell people is that you have to start every day with a clean slate.

You have to come in, understand that whatever it is that happened yesterday, even if you've dealt with the same person day in and day out, you have to be able to start fresh every day, and keep that in your mindset.

- You know it's a neighborhood, I wanna say, in transition.

But it seems like it's kind of stuck, a lot of issues, a lot of problems down there.

- [Narrator] Officer Dan Knight has seen and felt what officers Dana and Bennis describe.

Knight has been on the force for 34 years, now paroling Portland by cruiser and on two wheels.

- What's going on guys?

But all those guys back there, I've had good says with them, I've had bad days with them.

You kind of get to know their background and their story.

I mean one of the guys up there I knew when he was a clerk at a variety store when I was practically brand new working the midnight shift.

And you could see where his life's taken him now.

So it's knew of sad.

- [Narrator] Officer Knight explains it's all part of a drastically changed landscape Portland officers have had to adapt to, particularly in the last few years.

- Most of the people you were dealing with had more alcohol dependencies, they were heavy marijuana users.

Then there's a point crack cocaine came in and started being very big.

And that transitioned to heroin, then you had spice and bath salts, and now you're seeing meth being the big drug of choice.

And really for a lot of 'em, I think they'll take whatever they can get.

Everything going all right guys?

- [Men] Yeah.

- Okay, just make sure you pick up all your stuff when you leave, okay?

- [Man] All right.

- [Man] Yeah.

- Okay thank you.

Having to remind people please pick up your trash.

If you're using, please don't leave your needles laying around.

This is direct group between Candy Park and Pearl Place of kids that walk to King Middle School.

- [Narrator] And in Maine the sheer number of people who need to help who need services to help with housing, mental health and substance use disorder continues to climb.

According to a report from Maine Housing released in May, The Point In Time Survey found nearly 4500 people experiencing homelessness, more than double from 2021.

Officer Knight says a big problem is other states.

- Many times, probably several times a month you'll meet someone with a sheet of directions.

They've been given a bus ticket in a different state, a different city, and they send them to Portland, and they have a list of this is where the shelter is, this is where you get food 'cause they don't wanna deal with the issue in their area.

Hello.

- [Billy] Yeah.

- Who am I talking to?

- [Billy] Billy.

- Who?

Can you open the tent so I can see who I'm talking to please?

So if you can pack the tent up and everything, you're on private property, they don't want people hanging out here.

- [Billy] Oh, okay.

- It's like Portland is kind of the only place that's, we're dealing with it or trying to deal with it, and it's kind of hard 'cause we don't have all the resources to even take care of the people that we have that are from here.

Works good, Billy, thank you, have a good day.

There are a fair amount of people that wanna get help, wanna get better, but there aren't that many beds to give in the area.

Certainly need detox beds.

- [Narrator] Though frustrating and more demanding than when he joined the force, Officer Knight says it's the little victories that keep him paroling by car and by bicycle in one of Portland's toughest sections.

- Well it feels good when you feel that you do make a difference.

It seems like now a days those days are getting few and far between, but when someone does come up to you and say "I'm back in the neighborhood, "just stopping by, "but I've been gone a couple years, "and thanks to you.

"I didn't like you back then, "but you arrested me and whatnot, "but that was the beginning of a new journey "where I got some help, "and I'm doing well now."

That makes you feel real good.

- A traffic stop led to a drug bust in Sanford, and police say Andrew Hansen of Sanford was allegedly making regular trips out of state and returning with methamphetamine and fentanyl to sell throughout York county.

- Here's a rundown of stories we're following.

Drugs hidden in cans of beans.

The main drug enforcement agency says they suspect they found fentanyl hidden in those cans in a home in Corinth.

- So when we look over the last couple weeks, just the latest examples, to think that we've got a couple pounds of fentanyl and about 165 grams of methamphetamine taken in a traffic stop in the city of Sanford, and then to follow that up within a about a 10 day period with that 2.8 pound seizure in Corinth just goes to show that there's a lot of weight flying around in the state of Maine.

- [Narrator] Mike Sauschuck is Commissioner of Maine's Department of Public Safety, and he oversees 10 bureaus, including drug enforcement.

- Every ounce, every gram that we take off the street from my perspective continues to be incredibly important, but we don't for a second sit there and think that we're taking the vast majority of this off the road by any stretch of the imagination.

We are literally trying to keep a deadly narcotic outta the arm of one of our Maine residents.

- [Narrator] It's a job that has grown increasingly more difficult each day as dangerous drugs find their way into every corner of Maine.

Fentanyl hidden in cans of beans, in boxes of crackers.

Meth, heroin, cocaine all landing in our towns.

- For us, when we have these conversations with the general public and you just sprinkle out a few, literally a few grains of salt as an example on a table, and say that amount could kill you, that amount does kill people in our state.

It kills our family members with that amount.

Now look at a salt shaker, how many people would that actually kill?

Look at 2.8 pounds of fentanyl that comes outta Corinth, by the way Corinth is a town in Penobscot County that you've probably never heard of.

And if you Google that today, it's about 2900 residents, and there's 2.8 pounds of fentanyl in the town of Corinth, so how much could that, how many people could that kill at the end of the day?

It's staggering really to look at that because, as we know, Fentanyl's about 50 times the strength of heroin as an example, so how strong is that?

And that's why you have so many fatal overdoses, it's all driven by fentanyl nowadays.

It's certainly the case in, in Maine.

So we're trying to get the predators, people that are really moving weight in our communities, and folks that are here using a business model, and that business model includes killing our residents in the state of Maine.

- [Narrator] Sauschuck admits it's an uphill, but urgent battle trying to keep deadly narcotics out of the arms of Maine residents.

- You do hope that that word sprinkles back to wherever these predators are coming from to say you really shouldn't go to Maine, because if you go you're gonna get caught, and they're gonna put you in jail.

(sirens wailing) - [Narrator] While some police units deal with interdiction, arresting dealers and smugglers, others deal with the fallout when the drugs make it into communities.

- They're literally hurting every, every portion of our community with what they're doing, either directly or indirectly.

Between people overdosing, people getting their houses broken into.

- [Narrator] And for deputies with the Cumberland County Sheriff's office, that's a lot of area to cover.

From Maine's coastline to its border with New Hampshire, the Cumberland county Sheriff's office serves the largest population in the state, 280,000 citizens.

- If we eliminated drugs and alcohol from the world, I would be out of a job.

That's, everything that we do, 90% of our calls for service are related in some way, shape or form to drug use or alcohol use all the time.

- It's tough to keep track, right?

It's tough to keep track of how many tragedies that you've respond to.

The times that it is the worst, where we have to tell someone that their loved one has passed away, that's probably the worst thing to happen, and I've done a number of those.

I've unfortunately had to do a number of those, and I've had to do a number of those resulting in overdose deaths, or OUI accident crashes that ended up being fatal, or somebody being rushed to the hospital.

- [Narrator] In 2021, for agencies all over Maine, that meant responding to 636 fatal overdoses and 8,000 or more who lived because they were given Naloxone, better known as Narcan.

- Responding to overdose and overdose deaths and dealing with drugs in the community, it has taken a toll.

Each encounter is different.

You're dealing with somebody's, somebody's family member.

You're dealing with a real person of the community.

This person still has a life.

As much as you see them as a drug user, they're more than that, right?

They have family or loved ones that are surrounding them, friends that are surrounding them that are seeing this going on.

Nobody likes it when the police shows up, but we are there to help.

During these over overdose calls, we're there to help first and foremost, right?

We're not looking to get everybody in trouble as far as overdoses.

When somebody does overdose and they do pass away from it, it does affect the community.

It does affect the officers that are involved.

- It's difficult.

It's really difficult for us.

I mean, as everybody knows, these are extremely trying times for law enforcement, and the call volume doesn't stop because this issue has come to our area, they just keep going.

They keep going and they keep going.

People are still calling the police for any number of reasons.

So, if we're, we're out there trying to, to do the criminal interdiction, we're out there trying to do, take these people that are dealing these drugs that are killing people off the streets, we just, we don't have a ton of people, and sometimes we get information, we can follow up on it to a certain extent, then we're gonna get called away because we have, we have other things that we need to go handle.

But we are out there every single day.

- I think more or less you gotta think about it like they're a family member of yours, they're a friend of yours.

What would you be thinking if somebody's in that situation?

And to supply these people with the care that they need.

(gentle music) - We're so busy down here in the neighborhood, and there's so many people that need help, and so many people that we see on a daily basis.

I might see 100 people in one day, talk to 100 people in one day, that's a lot of people.

Our programs are intended to serve people experiencing poverty and homelessness, and often that population also includes people experiencing substance use disorder, mental health symptoms.

So we really see a wide variety of people come through our programs.

- [Narrator] Andrew Bove is vice president of Social Work at Preble Street, the busiest outreach organization in Maine's largest city.

COVID has ignited desperation and substance use.

- A lot of the people that I work with at Preble Street are people that are really acutely vulnerable, people that have been unable to access other emergency services systems, or who have really, there are no resources available to them, or they've gone through those resources or burned those bridges, or for whatever reason have ended up kind of alone on the street with no resources or supports.

We really try to operate our programs using a trauma informed lens.

So recognizing that people have experienced traumatic things, and that we want to provide services in a way that doesn't trigger people, and that doesn't kind of upset people or remind them of traumatic things that they've experienced.

(gentle music) - We're working with folks with really complex medical conditions, often co-occurring mental health and substance use.

- [Narrator] Health Services Director Caitlin Corrigan oversees the main medical center of Preble Street Learning Collaborative, a project to ensure the most vulnerable, underserved people have access to quality, barrier free healthcare.

- We had an experience of a patient coming to us, wanting to connect to medication-assisted treatment.

They got turned away from, this is a couple years ago, they got turned away from methadone clinic, came to us to try to get help, we couldn't do anything at that point, and they experienced a fatal overdose.

So at that point we started the short term Suboxone program.

And what that is is it's a short term ready access bridge program for folks to access medication-assisted treatment, Suboxone, ideally on the same day.

This is a pretty limited program.

We're not an ongoing treatment facility, but this is something that we identified we needed to do because that window can be so small.

Window of opportunity I refer to, it can look different for different people, and sometimes that window is a month of someone kind of really talking and engaging with a lot of different providers, and trying out the idea of going to a sober house, or getting on a wait list for treatment.

But sometimes that window is, is really very small, and it's a matter of minutes or hours to try to connect with them and make something happen.

So we have a window today.

They had a health concern that was, that came in because of their IV substance use, and so they had to go get medical care.

And so they're there, and I'm gonna go make sure they stay through the weekend.

And I've been calling and emailing with Operation Hope all week, and ideal scenario for this person is that they can go right to the hospital to treatment.

And we're back to square one, I'm gonna go back to square one with this person, and not tell them I'm disappointed in them, not judge them or shame them if things go wrong, but be there ready to try again, when they're ready to try again.

- They're sons, they're fathers, they're artists, they're engineers, they're musicians.

They have an identity which extends far beyond their homelessness or the fact they use substances.

And when you nurture that, and you identify that, and you remind people of that, that's what really lights a fire.

That's the spark that can really ignite people for change, and ignite people to kind of find a new way for themselves.

- [Narrator] It's five a.m., Scarborough Police Chief Rob Moton prepares for what he expects will be a busy day, just as every day has been in his law enforcement career spanning 44 years.

- I think people get into this business because they wanna help people, but we don't often know what that looks like.

And what we may consider helping someone is not really the help that they need.

I was guilty of having a certain image in my mind of if you told me, if you asked me the question what does somebody addicted to heroin look like?

I had, I had an image, I had a, I had an image of a bum, if you will, somebody who was laying on a sidewalk someplace, not a good, not a good picture in my mind.

We started Operation Hope because around the end of 2015 there were people dying every day.

I think there was a period in Portland in a 24-hour period I think they lost 14 people.

We launched October 1st of 2015, and in that time to date we've been able to put 442 people in treatment.

Now understand that there's been probably three times that number of folks who have come in looking for help, but the reality of it is some people just aren't ready, some people have circumstances that won't allow for it, and so the number of people that we've been able to get into treatment is probably a third of the folks that have actually come in.

- I'm gonna take (indistinct).

- Sure.

- [Narrator] This has become part of Lauren Dembski-Martin's beat as social services navigator with Scarborough PD and Operation Hope.

Literally looking under every stone, searching for anyone who needs help.

- Oh yeah, there's more back here than I thought.

- When I talked to her she was pretty forthcoming.

She said that she was displaced out of the shelter in Portland.

- So we just went to a campsite where some officers had, they were actually searching for another suspect, and they came across this tent, identified the male and the female as kind of getting kicked out of the local shelter, or not being able to utilize the local shelter, so now they're camping out behind Martins here in Scarborough.

- [Narrator] And for those who do want help, Lauren meets with them at Operation Hope headquarters at the Scarborough Police Department.

- In my years on the force, I certainly have seen lots and lots of drug issues and so forth, and the answer always was this war on drugs, it's all about enforcement, and we need to arrest all these people, and so forth.

And I think it's, if you're asking what changed, I think what changed is people dying.

When you sit down and talk to people in recovery and you understand what they went through and so forth, and the things that they did, you see 'em on the other side and you realize that these are really decent people.

These are really articulate people.

This is you and I. I'm a surgery away from having a situation like that, and that's scary.

In terms of this particular issue with substance use disorder, I would like to see ultimately a situation where anybody could walk into any police department or any fire department and ask for help, and have them have the resources to be able to not necessarily the funds, but understand where to send those people to get help.

- [Narrator] And finding people help is critical.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Centers for Disease Control, 100,000 people died in the U.S. in 2021 from drug overdoses, mostly from fentanyl.

In Maine, we lost 636 people to overdose.

That's a 23% increase.

And according to top drug enforcement officials in Maine 2022 is heading down the same course as 2021.

(sirens wailing) - We are headed to Comfort Inn to pick up a client and bring them to a medical appointment at Greater Boland Health.

- [Narrator] Brooks Ross and Courtney Bass are outreach workers with Milestone Recovery's Home Team.

By van and on foot they patrol the streets of greater Portland searching for anyone who needs help.

- How you doing man?

You want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?

- [Man] Yeah.

Thank you.

- You're welcome.

Have a good day.

- So the reason why I love my job is because I have my own history with substance use, domestic violence and a lot of these things that this population faces.

I feel like it gives me the same kind of experiences that they're actually going through currently, so to be able to kind of help guide and support them and actually be able to relate with them on the same page, it's something unique, I guess.

The people out here are genuine.

They're real.

So what you see is what you get, and I like that about people.

So, yeah, we're going to get him now.

Put a star, they're going on probation.

- [Brooks] So now we get to the Comfort Inn?

- Yes.

- All right, careful.

Have a good one.

- The reason I love my job is because me as well, I have a history of substance abuse.

I've actually been homeless myself a couple times, I couch surfed.

I've been sober for about three, three and a half years now, and I've never, I used probably about 12 years.

I was a, I was a, a junkie.

I shot drugs, shot heroin, cocaine and, never, I never thought that I'd ever, was ever gonna be able to stop.

It's really sad to see all these people out here, and ever since I've gotten outta rehab myself, and I've had this job I've actually been able to stay sober because I'm helping people.

And every other job I've had before this job is, I've always relapsed or fell back into that lifestyle.

And just working at Milestone is a good community of people that have your back.

(gentle music) So we just go out and we hand out water, just try to take care of their basic needs.

Every person is different, every situation.

It could be trying to hook, hook one, one person up with a doctor if they might have some issues with their health, or maybe if one is in a crisis, like a mental health crisis, then we have another resource for that.

You just never know.

You just never know what, what's gonna happen.

- [Narrator] And they say 2020 proved that.

The pandemic particularly difficult on those who were already dealing with homelessness, food insecurity and mental health issues.

- Extremely stressful on this population with no resources, nobody to reach out to, nowhere to go to the bathroom, nowhere to shower.

- Nowhere to even get like warm.

- [Courtney] Right.

- There was no, they shut down the resource center, so there was no place for them to go and just have a place.

- Then they opened up the hotels, which provided shelter, but then you had one person per room, and if they're using by themselves, more overdoses.

So people that normally didn't use were trying opiates because they were all together in the hotels, and we lost a few of our clients to opioid use that hadn't used in years, but the pandemic has caused a lot of stress on a vulnerable population, for sure.

- (indistinct) - Have a good day.

Have a good afternoon.

- This problem that we have in the world today with addiction, it affects everybody down the line, whether it's a friend that has a son or daughter to a, your cousin or nephew or niece.

It's a family disease, it affects everybody.

- [Narrator] Kirk Carlson first worked in outreach with the home team, he's now in Milestone's newly launched housing navigator program.

- I instantly can feel, I don't know.

sometimes it's a blessing, sometimes I think it's a burden, but I feel all the people's pain.

I can imagine I do.

When I see somebody cry, I hurt for them, or if somebody's happy, I'm happy for them, but I've always mentioned it to my supervisor why don't we try to help these guys?

I mean otherwise they're just gonna be coming in here.

The cycle's just gonna be the same.

This is a brand new building, low income.

Most of the people here, like Frank here, we set 'em up with a housing voucher, which allows him to afford the unit that he's presently living in.

The housing navigator program allows us to work with the clients in our shelter who also have substance abuse issues, allows me to get them into housing to where they can start to begin their recovery process.

Having a safe environment allows them, again, access healthcare, access the services that they need, or anybody needs to become successful in recovery.

- [Narrator] During COVID, Milestone had to turn away 100 people a week on average, making the home team's job all the more critical.

- I think it's less challenges, it's more kind of, I don't know, just meeting people where they're at.

I mean some days are, can be rough if there's a certain crisis or something like that.

Whatever it may be, you always kind of find a way to problem solve, and not all problems get solved, but, I mean, at least someone's listening, I guess.

- Thank you.

- You're welcome, Jimmy.

- Really, sir, really.

- No matter how tough it gets down her, and it gets really hard, it's cold, there's no day space.

There's no place for people to go to get warm, but they still, they still smile, they still laugh.

They still look after each other.

If they find one cigarette, they share it.

It's really kind of remarkable.

- [Narrator] Jeff Logan is pastor of Grace Street Ministry.

He is quite literally the street pastor of the people who live out on the streets of Portland.

- You okay with a blessing on this day?

Lord, bless this cross may bring your strength and your light and your love into this woman's life.

She's got a big heart, Lord, and sometimes that gets her into trouble.

Keep her safe out here- - I've been homeless for about seven months.

I have been put up at a hotel, most recent Comfort Inn in South (indistinct), but I let some homeless people stay in my room, they didn't have a place to go, and I got kicked out.

I got frostbite last year, and it was all the way down to here.

It's healing.

It started bleeding the other day, and I went to the hospital, and they said it was a good sign, that that means there's life in there.

- Piles of stuff.

Let's see.

- [Narrator] The trunk of Pastor Logan's car is filled with socks, coats and warm sturdy boots to keep his flock a little more comfortable.

- Okay.

Shoot.

Oh boy.

Let's go see if any of these will work.

- Hey Jeff.

- All right, we got two possibilities here.

- All righty then.

Thank you.

Thank you, young man.

- You need fresh socks if you got fresh boots.

You're gonna be styling in those puppies too.

So a lot of these folks, I have learned so much more from them then they have ever learned from me.

They kind of tear my heart open, to be honest with you.

- Giving up never makes it better, my friend.

- It does not.

They're really amazing folks in a lot of ways.

I mean I know that people drive up here and they're sitting there and they're drinking their beer and doing their stuff, and a lot of people just think that they're, they're a waste of space and oxygen.

- I have children, I've got grandchildren, great grandchildren.

I have friends who love me.

Hey, till the day I drop dead everything's positive.

Everything is positive.

- [Narrator] That coming from a man who seemed to have it all.

Jimmy was drafted by the Boston Bruins in 1973, in the amateur draft straight out of high school.

But life had different plans.

His girlfriend became pregnant, and Jimmy got a job instead.

And then life unraveled.

- The old saying God closes the a door, God leaves the window open.

And I don't like her sense of humor.

- So I have, and these actually, I was looking at, they're $10 ones.

- [Woman] Oh really?

- I know we never get $10 ones.

- [Narrator] Pastor Logan hands out Dunkin Donut gift cards to each of them, a minister who does not judge any of them for their substance use issues or why they landed here on the streets.

Year in and year out, he simply cares.

- It's really a privilege to where do we can do this.

We come down here to a built trust over six years so that I'm a member of the family, and that's a great thing to be able to do.

And I don't have to fix anything, I just get to show up and maybe I can bring a pair of shoes that makes a huge difference for somebody, or a Dunkin Donuts card so they can go get warm.

Small things, but things that make a huge difference for this population.

God bless, I'll see you soon.

- [Jimmy] Take care young man.

- You do the same.

- [Jimmy] I pray for your family too.

- Thank you.

That's really helping, Jimmy.

- [Jimmy] Thank you.

You pray for me, I pray for you guys.

- It's fair.

- [Jimmy] Yeah.

- Pastor Jeff is the preacher man.

He buries us and marries us, and does the whole thing in between.

So when he came down the street it was really, he had a nonjudgmental manner, and I think that appealed to folks.

- [Narrator] you could call Bob Bergeron one of Pastor Jeff's success stories.

- (indistinct) - [Narrator] A mural artist, he spent over 10 years homeless, living and drinking out on the streets.

- You get a lot of despair, hopelessness.

Your self worth aint great when you're trying to clean yourself in the stall at the bus station or the ferry terminal, and that first time that you ever reach into a trash can when other people are looking and pick something out of it, it does a number on your self esteem.

I've been off the booze since last May, and this time around I just, I finally had a chance to regroup.

Right now I'm all scrubbed up and I'm wearing clean clothes.

So I can stand here at these posters all day long, and no one would think anything of it.

But if I looked the way I used to look, and I stayed for too long looking in the windows, they'd probably call the cops.

It gave me a chance to be safe and regroup and collect my wits, and figure out what next.

I don't think there's any deep significance to it, it was just a time of day when I didn't feel so dirty and nasty and down trodden, and I could look at movie posters and be left alone.

They're giving me carte blanche so I'm gonna have fun.

It starts off in a sense or reality, and it's gonna move through whatever strikes my fancy.

So that's where I'm at with it right now.

- [Narrator] This is Bob's seventh commissioned mural.

His sense of fun and whimsy evident all over the city of Portland.

And now he's turning his attention to art therapy.

He's teaching art classes to the homeless.

- We're starting a group here, it runs on Fridays.

On the surface it's something to do, which when you're homeless you're limited on your entertainment dollar, so any time to spend the day, at least in my situation, if I could spend the day doing something enjoyable and productive it beat walking around from spot to spot all day.

So I'm hoping folks will catch on.

(gentle music) It gives me a lot of satisfaction.

And the fact that other people enjoy it, it makes the space a little bit better.

Gives people some things to ponder, maybe a bit of escapism.

No mistakes, just happy accidents.

(laughing) I've got a few simple things I do on a daily basis to maintain my sobriety, and I've changed the associations I have in my life.

I've got a lot of gratitude.

I dare say I've been trying to learn how to have some compassion for folks, just generally be a good person.

Hey, that'll keep you sober.

(laughing) (gentle music) ♪ Wide awake while the world is sound asleep ♪ ♪ Too afraid of what might show up while you're dreaming ♪ ♪ Nobody, nobody, nobody sees you ♪ ♪ Nobody, nobody, would believe it ♪ ♪ Every day you try to pick up all the pieces ♪ ♪ All the memories ♪ They somehow never leave you ♪ Nobody, nobody, nobody sees you ♪ ♪ Nobody, nobody will believe you ♪ ♪ God only knows what you've been through ♪ ♪ God only knows what to say about you ♪ ♪ God only knows it's killing you ♪ ♪ But there's a kind of love that God only knows ♪ ♪ And God only knows what you've been through ♪ ♪ God only knows how it's killing you ♪ ♪ God only knows what you've been through ♪ ♪ 'Cause there's a kind of love that God only knows ♪ ♪ You keep a cover over every single secret ♪ ♪ So afraid if someone saw then they would leave you ♪ ♪ Somebody, somebody, somebody sees you ♪ ♪ Somebody, somebody will never leave you ♪ ♪ God only knows what you've been through ♪ ♪ God only knows what they say about you ♪ ♪ God only knows it's killing you ♪ ♪ And there's a kind of love that God only knows ♪ ♪ God only knows what you've been through ♪ ♪ God only knows what to say about you ♪ ♪ God only knows the real you ♪ There's a kind of love that God only knows ♪ ♪ There's a kind of love that ♪ There's a kind of love ♪ There's a kind of love ♪ For the lonely ♪ For the ashamed ♪ The misunderstood ♪ And ones to blame ♪ What if we can start over ♪ If we can start over ♪ If we can start over ♪ For the lonely ♪ For the ashamed ♪ The misunderstood and ones to blame ♪ ♪ What if we could start over ♪ If we could start over ♪ If we could start over ♪ 'Cause there's a kind of love that God only knows ♪ ♪ God only knows what you've been through ♪ ♪ God only knows what they say about you ♪ ♪ God only knows the real you ♪ And there's a kind of love that God only knows ♪ ♪ God only knows what you've been through ♪ ♪ God only knows what they say about you ♪ ♪ God only knows it's killing you ♪ ♪ But there's a kind of love that God only knows ♪ - [Narrator] If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use disorder, reach out to the knowyouroptions.me website.

Resources by county are listed with direct contact information.

If it's an emergency, call 911.

You could be that critical link to saving a friend or a family member.

Special thanks to our sponsor MaineHealth.