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Shelter from the cold

New Hampshire program tackles homelessness

BY JOHN TREAT

Where do you go on a Friday afternoon in subzero New Hampshire weather when you, your disabled husband, and your two school-aged children are evicted from the shelter you've been living in?

This was just what happened to a family who came to Concord, New Hampshire's Cold Weather Emergency Shelter, a joint project of the AFSC and the city's First Congregational Church.

The family's story is familiar to many who have worked with people who are homeless. The father had a history of mental health issues. The mother had held the family together until her own anxiety became uncontrollable. Soon they found themselves living in a shelter. No longer having a permanent address, they fell between the cracks of the system and lost their benefits.

Most shelters require that a guest start looking for work on his or her second day in the shelter, and many people who are homeless simply aren't capable of that, says Martha Yager of AFSC's New Hampshire Program.

Growing demand

The Cold Weather Emergency Shelter was started in 2003 as arctic air settled over the region and people in the community worried that those living under bridges and in camps would freeze to death.

Volunteers sign up for overnight shifts at the cold weather shelter. Photo: Nicki Gaines

The first winter the shelter was open only on the coldest nights and had three to four guests per night. Last winter there were 15 to 28 guests a night, including a family and several couples as well as single adults. This winter the decision has been made to be open every night and up to 32 people have used the shelter. A satellite facility has been opened at Concord's South Church.

However, stopgap measures, no matter how important, aren't the AFSC New Hampshire Program's only approach to housing.

In December, working with the Governor's Interagency Council on Homelessness, Martha and others presented a ten-year plan to the governor to address homelessness in the state.

She says that the 10 percent of the population that is chronically homeless uses 50 percent of the resources because there are so few substance abuse and mental health services available to help them stabilize their lives. Others, including many of the working poor across the state, find themselves homeless because of the state's lack of affordable housing.

The cost-effective ten-year plan urges the state to address these issues, knowing that in the long run this will help more people get off the streets.

A happy ending

The story we began with has a happy ending. During the family's six-week stay, shelter staff and volunteers helped them get their benefits back. When members of the church found that the couple had been in the restaurant business, they hired them to cater church affairs. Today they have their own apartment and the boys are in school.

"I am in awe of the community that has developed, the lives that are changing and the power of treating people with dignity and kindness," Martha says. "Amazing things are happening. It also has been a powerful window into the ways the safety net fails people, which I can use in my policy work both locally and on the state and federal level."

John Treat is a Quaker Action contributing editor.

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