MANCHESTER, NH – Over the weekend a group of about 30 people, many of whom have been living homeless in the city for well over a year, returned to a nomadic existence. They were moved several times by police who have been citing them for various violations of city ordinances that address sidewalk encumbrances and public/private property.
Kalee Chaput was among them. Until recently she had been living along the railroad tracks, along with her father, Richard.
Last month she was arrested for trespassing there by railroad police. Last Friday in court her original charge was reduced to a misdemeanor. Now she must pay a $124 fine by Friday, or – what – she is not sure.
She says she intends to pay the fine. She doesn’t want to find out what will happen if she doesn’t.
“I guess it was the best possible outcome. I’ve already been dealing with enough stuff out here,” she said.
Since the city dismantled a large encampment outside of 199 Manchester Street in January, the area has been mostly clear of people and things. However, that started to shift in recent weeks as other encampments have been swept.
A temporary emergency 40-bed shelter operated by the city on Beech Street has been full since it opened in February. It was supposed to close April 30 but will remain open until June 30 after the Board of Aldermen voted to extend that. Part of the reason is knowing that when they do close the shelter doors, another 40 people will be out on the street without a permanent address.
Need to find some middle ground
Since May 2 there have been more than two dozen police log entries for “homeless issues.” Not only have officers responded to 199 Manchester St., which is the address of the Families in Transition shelter, but they’ve been called to various locations around the city – both the Eversource property and The Foundry restaurant on Commercial Street, more than once; Youville Street, South Willow Street, several Elm Street restaurants and businesses, Northwest Elementary, Maple Street, Pine Street, Union and Hanover and Mills Falls Charter School.
By all indications, the “homeless issue” is a moving target. Some advocates for the homeless would like to see the city designate one area where people can “live” without being moved while receiving services, something like the encampment under the Amoskeag Bridge which was sanctioned and federally funded during COVID, after shelter space was drastically reduced.
Alderman Pat Long, who has spent the better part of six years trying to find a workable solution, says he is feeling more frustrated than ever.
“One side wants to put them in jail or ship them to Massachusetts. The other side wants to give them every comfort so that they don’t seek the help they really need,” says Long. “It has to be something in the middle. They have to become sick and tired of being sick and tired before they will seek help. We need to find some middle ground.”
Long believes what’s been missing – and still is – is a census of the homeless population that deciphers how many of those without shelter are work-ready, how many need some assistance with documents, how many need mental health services or medications, and how many need recovery from addiction. He believes this should include all those living in and out of shelters.
Without that, it’s impossible to know what resources are most needed. Moving a faction of people from shelter beds to jobs and transitional housing – like his 2021 proposal for temporary “tiny home” pods, which failed to gain support – would open up shelter beds for those who need more services.
“Year after year we’re seeing the same people in need of help. We’re not really seeing any results. Let’s figure out what we’re spending on the unhoused, on police and fire and EMT services, the health department, DPW. I would guess last year it was millions of dollars. Let’s cut that in half and put half of it toward housing, which is what we really need,” says Long.
There are pilot pod communities nearby, in Vermont and Massachusetts, from which Manchester could find out what is working and what would make them better.
“Time is money. We need short- and long-term goals and we absolutely need to do something now, before we are up against another winter with no place for people to go,” Long said.
You feel you don’t deserve anything in life
Along Pine Street Saturday a section of the sidewalk was again filling up with people and their things – a couple of shopping carts, baby strollers, laundry baskets, a steamer trunk all filled with clothing and other items. People said they were trying to make sure there was a three-foot buffer zone between the chainlink fence around the shelter’s common outdoor area and the stuff, so as not to get another ordinance violation for encumbrance.
Levi Fitton, 28, was outside the FIT shelter. He says he keeps his belongings to a minimum of what he can carry – a backpack and a satchel.
“I’ve lived in Manchester since I was 2 months old,” he said, explaining how things have never been ideal in his world. He dropped out of Memorial High School in ninth grade and nobody seemed to notice. His mother didn’t make him go back to school. Eventually, she moved out of the area when he was about 21.
That’s the last time he had a stable living arrangement, he says.
“Look at me now. Imagine me at 14. I was a small kid. I got bullied, shoved into lockers, so I quit school. My mother didn’t care,” he says. That rift remains with his mother and most of his family, so he’s mostly on his own. He says he’d like to get out of the cycle of homelessness and addiction he’s fallen into. He works when he can, but something usually happens and he loses the job. He does take responsibility for those failures. He says his documents – ID, birth certificate and Social Security card – are among items he lost recently, the last time he was asked to leave the shelter for possession of an illegal substance.
He says his identification was in the pocket of a sweater he left behind in the rush to leave. “They kicked me out for seven days and I didn’t go back.” He said his current goal is to get a job and find a room in a rooming house.
When asked if he might go to the Beech Street shelter to find help in getting new identification, he said he hadn’t been over there, yet. And when asked why, prior to losing his identification, he didn’t pursue a job or a room in a rooming house, he said he lacks the will.
“You get pushed down so much and get called all these names, like low-life and drain on society, we almost start to believe it. You really start to feel like you don’t deserve anything more in life,” Fitton said.
When asked when was the last time he sat down with someone like a counselor or social worker who could help walk him through his options, he said “never.”
“I don’t like to do that,” he said. “I’m talking to you now for everyone else, so that you can understand how it feels out here,” he said.
‘Just tell us where to go’
Chaput was with a few people Saturday afternoon who had piled up some belongings behind the fire station. She explained how she was issued a $62 ticket last week for blocking the sidewalk with her things. She would argue that the rainy weather meant umbrellas and tarps were in use by many of those who were huddled next to the shelter. It might have looked like they were overtaking the sidewalk, but most of them try to be compliant and create the three-foot buffer.
She says she’s noticed a shift in how police officers are dealing with them, “they’re a little more harsh,” she said.
“They were telling us we couldn’t use umbrellas and stuff, which is crazy because that’s a park rule, not a sidewalk rule,” Chaput said. “The weather has been shitty – excuse my language – and in their minds I guess they consider it camping when we pull a tarp over our heads to try and stay dry,” she said.
As she was getting ready to go to court Friday the city came through with two large trucks and removed unattended items. Many of the people were eating breakfast at 1269 Cafe when the police came. She believes the timing is no coincidence.
“By the time I came back from court it was already cleaned out,” Chaput said.
People had been told to move, so they moved over to the 1269 Cafe, she said.
“Brynn at 1269 was nice enough to give everyone a couple of hours to figure things out. She said you can leave your stuff here while you figure it out, but then she noticed that nobody was really moving or doing anything. So my dad and I started moving our stuff across the alley to the other side and eventually, everybody else did, too,” she said.
By Friday night several police cruisers responded to the alley that runs between FIT and 1269, behind Brutus Automotive. Chaput was there with others who thought they’d found an out-of-the-way place to hunker down for the night, not realizing it was private property. According to Chaput Lt. Emmett Macken told them they had to go.
“I said, ‘just tell me where to go and I’ll go there,’ because we don’t like this any more than they do. He told us to go to the Beech Street shelter, so we called, but they said they had no beds. I told him that we’re exhausted of having to move all the time,” Chaput said.
“I could see on some of their faces that they feel bad because they know there really is no place for us to go. I know police are getting pressure from the city officials, or whatever. Lt. Macken used the term ‘compassion fatigue.’ We’re as tired of dealing with them as they are of dealing with us.”
