MANCHESTER, N.H. – On Tuesday night, the Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BMA) received an update from Director of Homeless Initiatives Adrienne Beloin on the state of homelessness in the city along with strategies aimed at addressing the issue in the future.
The first part of Beloin’s focused on statistics from a survey given to the 177 guests at the Beech Street Shelter, which tended to be male (74 percent) and older (34 percent over the age of 50 and 73 percent over the age of 36).
A majority of the guests said that they had been homeless for over a year within Manchester. Of the 40 guests out of the 177 that were at the shelter as of Tuesday, 19 said they would not know where they’d go if the shelter could not continue after its current funding stream runs out on June 30 and ten of the respondents said they go back to the streets or an encampment.
Frequent concerns included unstable income, a lack of a phone, the inability to keep an identification card, storage needs, and a lack of necessary healthcare in addition to other issues.
Within the last month, Beloin noted that the Manchester Police Department reported a lack of increases in numerous types of criminal activity within 1,000 feet of the shelter and the Manchester Fire Department reported no calls for service and no non-fatal overdoses compared to 45 and seven respectively over the shelter’s first two months of existence.
The Tirrell House Shelter for women, operated by the YWCA, has served 38 women according to Beloine, helping many of those women with removing barriers to housing, mental health assistance, financial assistance and domestic violence support.
While the survey was meant to analyze options to help serve the guests if funding for the shelters cannot be extended indefinitely, the presentation also discussed Beloin’s desire to build a new “engagement shelter.”
Unlike an emergency shelter like the one on Beech Street, which seeks to meet survival needs of the homeless population, an engagement shelter seeks to provide homeless individuals with more stability so they can transition out of homelessness completely.
Beloin told members of the BMA currently there are two to three possible locations for the engagement shelter, which would provide additional non-emergency services such as mental and medical healthcare, job training, building community and mail services among other things in the hope of building comfort and trust in homeless individuals that often have been victims of trauma or substance abuse that put them onto the streets.
One example she provided of how the engagement shelter could help homeless individuals is by providing job training to homeless people within a kitchen that could feed other homeless individuals, with that training then being an asset for seeking potential jobs in restaurants.
Beloin says that the engagement model has become the standard trend in homeless reduction initiatives across the country, with nearby comparisons being found in Keene, Concord and Portland, Maine.
Alderman At-Large Joseph Kelly Levasseur expressed concern that providing services would draw additional homeless people to Manchester. Beloin and Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig noted that homelessness is an issue across the U.S. and across New Hampshire respectively, with Beloin noting that homeless individuals often gravitate toward urban areas as part of a survival instinct since it is easier to panhandle and find other homeless people that can provide support networks in more densely populated areas.
Ward 10 Alderman Bill Barry echoed Levasseur’s concern regarding services and noted that he did not want an engagement shelter near any schools or residential areas.
Beech Street Shelter Manager Jake King replied to Barry’s concerns that local business leaders have requested the creation of such shelters to help entice homeless people out of downtown business destinations, adding that it is better to ensure that some of the people who may be ex-criminals or sex offenders are in a specific known place than out lurking the streets.
King also told Barry that not all homeless people take advantage of these services since each person’s situation and trust level is different, with many people hurt by those who they have trusted before and attempting to rebuild trust in others after those mental scars.
Craig told Barry and Levasseur that many programs are provided by the state and non-profits, but they and other Aldermen have the opportunity to directly address funding for some programs proposed within the city’s community improvement plan budget.
King also responded to a question from Ward 9 Alderman Jim Burkish by reiterating Beloin’s philosophy that when humans are trapped within survival mode, it is difficult for them to focus on anything else until they can become comfortable enough to escape that mentality.
Beloin noted that it is difficult to find a perfect spot for an engagement center that is far enough away from residences and businesses but not so far away that homeless individuals find it inaccessible.
