MANCHESTER, NH – The city is moving closer to expanding its inventory of affordable housing, one tedious step at a time.
On Tuesday night the Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved $2.3 million for 152 affordable housing units in Manchester. The money is coming through the federal HOME program from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Although it will not eliminate the great need that currently exists, it is a step in the right direction according to the city’s Director of Homeless Initiatives Schonna Green. The amount of footwork involved in such forward motion requires a lot of attention to detail. It is work mostly done behind the scenes, and often involves delicate negotiations that can easily be derailed.
But Green is marching forward and remains optimistic that Tuesday night’s announcement is the beginning of more positive progress to come.
“It’s phenomenal,” Green said of the affordable housing funding. “I think we continue to do those things, that’s what we have to. It’s needed. We have to build here. We have to own our own inventory to provide for the public. I think it’s a great idea.”
Three organizations will receive loan funds for projects that will create or renovate affordable housing: Manchester Housing and Redevelopment Authority (MHRA) received $450,000 to develop 48 new units at Kelly Falls; NeighborWorks Southern New Hampshire received $1.5 million to rehabilitate 101 units of 1, 2, and 3-bedroom units at Elm Street Brownstones and Straw Mansion Apartments at Temple Court; and Waypoint received $361,256 to renovate the former Employment Security Building, 298 Hanover St., which will result in the development of three studio apartments for young, at-risk adults aged 18 to 25.
This winter a new collaboration between HOPE for NH Recovery and 1269 Cafe has resulted in a winter warming station at 1269 Cafe, located a the former St. Casimir’s. Green says the city supports the endeavor and invested $130,000 in fixing the fire escapes on the building so that they could open 24 overflow shelter beds and accommodate the warming station.
“In addition to that we’ve had some local churches donate funds to this initiative. We definitely believe this is the best answer to ensure everybody has a place to stay, to be warm and have access to support services,” Green said. “Is it the best solution? I’d love to see a lot more happening but we have to deal with what we have within the confinements we have right now.”
In addition to shelter beds, there is need for workforce housing and long-term permanent housing with services.
“We have folks who need stabilization and mental health who aren’t ready to work. We have a huge population with criminal background issues who won’t qualify for affordable housing. There are so many levels of need, and believe me, we are working hard every day on all of these things, but it all takes time and money. It requires partnerships and collaboration. We’re getting there, but it’s going to take more time.”
COVID, Evictions, Mental Health and Addiction
Following nearly two years of COVID-19 disruption to the economy, Green says the need for affordable housing remains a top priority. And that calculation doesn’t yet include the number of people affected by the end of the national eviction moratorium in August.
“That’s something we’re going to be looking at in the next few weeks. We don’t quite know what to expect but it is going to hit,” Green said.
Beyond those who may be finding themselves homeless due to the economics of the pandemic, there are those who have been struggling for other reasons. The lack of adequate and relevant mental health and substance use recovery services have been identified over the past few years, time and again, as primary factors for those living homeless in woodland encampments or parks.
“People are in need of respite and addiction services,” says Green. “Every day we walk the line between the humanitarian needs of the chronically homeless and those who have a right to live and recreate here in the city where they live and pay taxes, without having to encounter needles and feces. We have plenty of services for the homeless, but the beds are lacking.”
During public comment at Tuesday night’s aldermanic meeting, several speakers alluded to comments made “previously” by Green regarding the needs of the addicted who are homeless, saying. After the meeting Green said that she was quoted incorrectly by those who implied she does not believe people suffering from addiction should be fed.
“My job is to encourage them to utilize 1269, to utilize FIT, so we can start to discern what other issues they may have so that we can place them,” Green said. She favors centralizing services for those currently sleeping in doorways and parks so the city can better provide services and be more accountable.
And she’s also been tapping into the services of other local non-profits, such as Nashua-based GateHouse recovery services, with tangible results.
Between Sept. 16 and Nov. 30 an outreach team from GateHouse has helped move 28 homeless individuals off Manchester Streets and into respite beds. Of those, only two have returned to the streets.
Alderman Pat Long, who has been a long time in the trenches of homelessness and addiction as an elected official for the city and the state said Tuesday he was impressed by Green’s ability to make things happen.
“For the first time in my 12 years as alderman I’m starting to see people go into wrap-around programs and respite without coming back,” said Long.
“I thought I was good. I’m a kindergartner compared to her. She’s unbelievable with how to get the resources flowing. She met with the governor and she was like a breath of fresh air to him, talking about taking care of the homeless in the state of New Hampshire. That’s what we need, like with healthcare, a statewide set up with seven districts to address housing so people can find what they need where they are and don’t have to come to Manchester for services,” Long said.
And there are other unprecedented glimmers of hope.
“There are some immediate affordable housing options we’re finding, things we can’t quite talk about yet. But the other day I got a call from a landlord who’s turning a small commercial building into five Section 8 units. He’s a young entrepreneur who’s buying up apartment buildings and that’s what he wants to do. I made sure he understood how it works and he does, so we’re going to help however we can with housing money. That’s a first for me. It’s the first time I didn’t have to convince someone to do that,” Long said. “It will take some time. It has to go through the planning board for approval and maybe three months of construction, but it’s somewhat immediate. It’s a start.”
Trust, Treatment and Transport Vans
Ed McDonough of GateHouse has walked the lonely road of addiction which eventually delivered him to a better place. As CEO of Behavioral Healthcare, the holdings company that operates GateHouse, he has been part of an outreach team comprised of four to five people in long-term recovery that go to Victory Park in Manchester several times a week. Those who say they are ready to get off the street are transported in vans to wherever they are best suited, whether it’s to a respite bed or recovery.
“That’s why we’ve earned some trust. Those who aren’t ready the day we talk to them, we’ll reach out to later. It helps, being able to talk the same language, between myself and some of my staff who’ve experienced the trials and tribulations they’re experiencing, and who know the grips of addiction and how the disease tells you it’s better to sleep outside under a stolen umbrella than to take a step forward,” McDonough says.
Under a contract with the state there are 26 respite beds that would normally be available for seven days. Due to COVID, the Department of Health and Human Services has extended that stay for up to 30 days for those with an opioid or stimulant diagnosis. After respite, clients often move into one of GateHouse treatment programs, which includes 120 sober-living beds.
State and federal strings attached to funding for recovery beds versus respite beds create some of the issues when it comes to availability and meeting the need.
“It does get complicated as we’re not a homeless shelter, we’re an addiction treatment company,” says McDonough.
But those who begin with respite have options for structured housing, sober living and an array of clinical services including integrated healthcare, full psychiatric care and whatever support is needed.
Meeting people Where They Are
McDonough says he agrees with Green that having a centralized point of contact would help.
“I’m all for meeting a client where they’re at in terms of treatment, but when going out there in the woods, I mean, it would be cool to live in a tree fort in the summer and have someone come give me meds, but there’s a fine line between enabling and helping,” McDonough says. In his observations, police were doing a good job of community policing at parks, letting people know they couldn’t stay put but that there were places to go.
“It was a good system of saying ‘let’s work together to get you out of here,’ and we were successful in getting 26 people off the street,” he says. “Even when they were (sweeping encampments) a year ago, some of them came to respite in Nashua and some stayed, but some didn’t. Everyone has different reasons why they’re homeless and I think that’s important to note. But for the ones struggling with substance use disorder, when you have an outreach person in long-term recovery talking to them it’s easier to have that conversation about addiction, and how to stay in recovery a day at a time when we know what it takes.”
Although GateHouse has been a known entity in Nashua for years, the relationship with Manchester is relatively new, and really began by accident, says McDonough.
“Chief Goonan wasn’t sure how to get people into beds when the respite contract first started. People were coming into the fire station at 3 a.m. and so we helped work with them through the system to get people placed. When they hired Schonna they asked if we’d sit down and talk about a deeper relationship,” McDonough says. “One of our employees has a loved one who is with Manchester Fire Department and they asked how we could do something more without any funding. Being a for-profit we’re a little more flexible. Our people are all in long-term recovery and we’re mission-driven. We want to help those suffering like we used to be.”
COVID has added challenges to the work he’s doing, but the reality is that it’s been difficult for years.
“I always point to the Hillary/Trump presidential primary. That’s when the world started to take notice. I know this because I was interviewed by three foreign news stations in 2016 who wanted to know about this epidemic we had here in New Hampshire,” McDonough says.
In reality, alcohol is still the No. 1 addiction associated with death here.
“The news did a great job of covering it but people became numb to it, almost the way my generation reacts toward something like the end of the war in Afghanistan. We don’t want our friends to go and die but was it ever going to stop? Then it just stopped being the top news item, and it’s the same with addiction. We made people aware and created access points, but whenever we talked about how to get a full model of continuum of care, that’s when the question of budget came up.”
The science data says someone who stays in treatment for over a year has more than an 80 percent chance of success, says McDonough. That, in a treatment ecosystem lacking sufficient detox beds, and where insurance doesn’t cover sober living.
“I can’t stress enough that it’s a disease and it requires a medical behavioral health solution. How can we provide all those things with the current system? We have a psychiatric medical provider but not all programs do. So people don’t deal with their anxiety and instead are self-medicating, whether it’s depression or anxiety. In New Hampshire, we have pieces of the model, but it’s the missing pieces we need to wrap our hands around,” he says.
Everyone’s Got a Story
Now 11 years sober, McDonough’s own story began as a high schooler. That’s when he first dabbled with opioids, due to an injury.
“But it would have been alcohol or something else because I liked the way it all made me feel,” he says. He eventually went to college and was an athlete, even got a job with the Massachusetts District Attorney’s office. He was looking at a future in law school or law enforcement. He even took a civil service exam to become a police officer. “But as a 21-year-old freshman, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop smoking weed to become a cop.”
His addiction progressed and eventually, he wound up homeless after being charged with armed robbery. He found his way to GateHouse where he started as a client. He’s repaired relationships with his family that were broken by his addiction. His step-father is a police officer and he works closely with him and other police departments in Massachusetts. His dad created the GateHouse logo.
“In my journey of recovery I’m coming up on 11 years. I’ve learned a few things, especially about myself. I was never in control of where I was supposed to be in life. It wasn’t my plan, there was a power at work greater than my plan. The story happened the way it was supposed to. I got into this to help people and that mission became even greater as we got into 2015 and 2016. I was averaging a couple of funerals a month of people I knew or crossed paths with, due to overdoses,” McDonough says.
He understands how addiction leads directly to homelessness in many cases, and while he counts himself lucky to have found the escape hatch, he knows what it takes is hard work and the support of those who’ve been there and done that.
“A lot of clients we’ve dealt with have been misusing substances for five to ten years or longer. You can’t fix that in 28 days. It’s like a medical injury. Say you broke your leg, you get an X-ray, you get a cast, surgery maybe. You have to heal for six to eight weeks, then you need physical therapy just for one leg to walk again, nevermind something associated with the brain,” says McDonough.
“And maybe they have to go to the gym on their own to add weight training. If they’re a hockey player or a runner, it may be years before they get back to where they used to be. Any other disease is treated like that, so why do we expect addiction to go away, especially once you’ve reached the point of homelessness? And while I hate to use this analogy, if you took a stray dog and put it in your house it doesn’t even know to notify you it has to go out to the bathroom. You have to relearn things,” says McDonough. The public at large takes these things for granted. They ask ‘why can’t they just get a job and pay their bills on time,’ something that’s hard enough for those who make a decent wage to figure out. I never got the instruction manual for adulting.”
For him, it’s all quite personal.
“Three people I got sober with, who I got really close with, they’re all dead,” he says. “I carry their memory. I know it’s avoidable and that there’s another option. That’s why I’m here.”
