News Update

BANGOR, Maine — The number of people facing homelessness in Maine is on the decline. However, the issue remains a significant problem in the state’s third largest city: Bangor.

Rogan O’Donnell spent 19 months filming people in Bangor’s famed “tent city” distilling the footage into a 78-minute documentary.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle is hosting a screening of the documentary “inhuMAINE,” which focuses on Maine’s homelessness issue. The screening is a community effort involving the film’s creator, Rogan O’Donnell, Community Action in Aroostook, Washington, and Hancock Counties, UMPI’s Student Government Association, and the university’s Psychology Club. Organizers say the timing is especially important as the region heads into a weekend of below-zero temperatures.

City officials have spent a lot of time in the last few months talking about how to address homelessness in Bangor, spurred in part by the closure of an encampment near the railroad by the Penobscot River.

Bangor’s City Council declared 2025 the city’s “year of building,” making a commitment that the council would work to build housing, economic development and relationships.

Advocates say overnight facilities are essential in Maine, but services are limited and it is increasingly difficult to meet the need in communities, including those in York County.