197 Oxford St. in the city’s Bayside neighborhood. The former homeless shelter at is the largest housing-first affordable housing complex in Maine and may be part of a larger 123-unit housing complex with both affordable and market-rate apartments. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

Portland Planning Board members appeared divided Tuesday night at a workshop on the proposed mixed-income housing development in Bayside; Some said they were concerned about the project’s location, while others opposed it, saying the housing was urgently needed.

The project, a collaboration between Avesta Housing and Reveler Development, will create dedicated housing for the chronically homeless and include affordable and market-rate apartments for a total of 96 units. The project will consist of three buildings located on Cedar, Lancaster and Oxford streets, on the site of the former Oxford Street Shelter.

Six people submitted written comments expressing concerns about the project, including Sarah Michniewicz, who was elected City Councilwoman to represent the neighborhood. He said the site plan does not include enough green space in a neighborhood that already lacks greenery, and he also had problems with the location.

“(The location) continues to undermine the goal of providing stability for tenants exiting homelessness” because the neighborhood already struggles with drug use and violence, he said.

Planning board members Sean Murphy and Justin Baker also echoed Michniewicz’s concerns about the location.

“I’m still not convinced this is the right location for a priority housing project,” Murphy said during the meeting. “Anyone who has spent any time there knows that it is a neighborhood with a lot of activity. Bringing together people trying to get their lives together feels like a risky place to be. “I can’t think of a worse place.”

But Marpheen Chan, who also serves on the board, said she feels there is pressure to remove homeless people from the Bayside neighborhood and that the housing project is important for the city to pursue first.

“If the focus is truly on equitable sharing of the pressures and burdens of the homeless issue,” Chan said, “we shouldn’t be trying to push people out of West Bayside.” “The trend I’m seeing right now is to go all out, let’s push them out of this neighborhood.”

Avery Yale Kamila wrote that she was concerned that the project would create “poor houses” and “rich houses” by putting housing first, putting affordable units in one building and market-rate units in others.

West Bayside resident Jim Hall also expressed concerns about the project.

“I don’t want to hinder progress here, we need housing,” he said. “But I have made no attempt to provide any mitigation plans for the impacts we know are occurring on the neighborhood.”

No decisions were made on the future of the project Tuesday night, but after a brief discussion the board indicated they would likely hold another workshop before voting.

The project will offer housing along with on-site services provided by Preble Street, a nonprofit social service agency, including substance use counseling and other support services. Because it will be permanent housing, residents won’t have to deal with the restrictions that come with staying in a homeless shelter overnight, such as curfews and rules preventing couples from sleeping together.

The project was proposed in April as a collaboration between Reveler, a local developer that builds and manages mixed-use developments, and Avesta, an affordable housing developer. The two organizations will split management of the development.

Avesta will be responsible for the housing priority building, where 28 units will be reserved for the chronically homeless and an additional 20 affordable units will be located in the same building. Reveler will be responsible for converting 50 Cedar St. into 24 market-rate housing units. And at 158 ​​Lancaster St., Reveler would develop 51 more units at market rate.

The proposal has not been well received in the neighborhood since it was proposed. One public hearing on the project over the summerBayside residents said they are concerned about how the new development could affect safety in the neighborhood, the design’s lack of green space and the idea of ​​chronically homeless people living next to children living in the family shelter across the street.

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