Merrimack County Superior Court judge has put a hold on all evictions from Concord homeless camps on state lands. The ruling came during preliminary hearing Monday for the suit filed by three homeless Concord men.
The hold on evictions will run for at least 10 days and up to the next court hearing. About 150 homeless people were removed from camps around Concord earlier this month.
The judge ruled against further evictions to allow New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union lawyer Barbara Keshan, who represents the homeless plaintiffs, to supplement her arguments and respond to state pleadings.
She says the state is wrongly using a law that deals with transportation.
“It’s kind of an obscure law. It doesn’t even apply to what’s going on here because it has to do, for the most part, with camping on roadways and no one here is camping on a roadway.”
Keshan says she hopes the courts will rule against evictions from state lands but, she says, the real solution to the problem must come from city and state policy-makers.