MANCHESTER, NH – A bumpy beginning to the city’s collaborative relationship with Gatehouse Recovery seems to have smoothed over after a meeting of the minds last week.
Manchester Fire Chief Ryan Cashin, who serves as Director of Emergency Services for the city and who has oversight over Homeless Initiatives Director Adrienne Beloin, said on Monday that as with any new program, there are often kinks that need to be worked out.
“Gatehouse executives were really excited and enthused about the way Adrienne had proposed reporting on this program and how she wants to report successes,” Cashin said. “We worked all that out. I’m anticipating it will be a smooth operation going forward.”
He acknowledged that since launching officially in March there had been some issues around Gatehouse’s compliance with the contract, which calls for specific data gathering and reporting. Under the contract, Gatehouse is paid to shepherd a total of up to 60 individuals living on the streets into drug detox, including follow-up information to gauge the success of their efforts.
“It’s a new program – one we haven’t done before, and one Gatehouse hasn’t done,” Cashin said. I would describe it as moving from the launch phase into the implementation stage. It’s a great program that started out fast and it has great potential to help a lot of the most vulnerable people in the city.”
Beloin described the meeting as positive and said that going forward she will be working with Donna McHugh, Gatehouse Vice President of Clinical Outreach, who will be reporting to her.
During both the May 15 Aldermanic Special Committee on Alcohol, Other Drugs and Youth Services, and the May 16 full board meeting there was heated discussion around some aspects of the contract between Gatehouse and the city. Those discrepancies, around data reporting and gathering, were resolved during the follow-up meeting with Gatehouse executives, Beloin said.
“In response to this past week’s meetings, the Gatehouse executive team feels strongly that the scope and terms of the contract should be upheld, including compliance with the contract reporting as agreed. Gatehouse has identified a new contract manager to work directly with me around reporting and we have agreed that we would co-present to the special committee on the progress of the project going forward,” Belion said. “We plan to stay the course and celebrate the successes of the project that are evidenced by the work. Not all of our homeless folks are the same. They require different approaches and solutions. For the most difficult-to-engage members of our homeless population, intervention works best in collaboration with refuge and other wrap-around comprehensive services. This is an engagement center model we are missing in Manchester that will add to our existing models of services for which we should have variety.”
