There was a time when the whole community would have sat up and taken notice.

Last Thursday, just as he was rolling out of bed, Mark Swann got a call from Preble Street, the social services agency in Portland over which he presides as executive director.

The news was not good: A longtime Preble Street client with chronic illness had stretched out on a thin mat the night before in the agency’s Resource Center, used to catch the overflow each night from the nearby Oxford Street shelter. When staff tried to awaken him that morning, the man was dead.

Swann made a mental note: Portland’s homeless death toll for the year had just risen from 37 to 38 [Click here to read the full article on the Portland Press Herald website].