This story was originally produced by the Keene Sentinel. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
Keene's Human Services Department is seeking $900,000 in additional funds to assist people with shelter this year, due to what City Manager Elizabeth Dragon said is a substantial need for this type of help.
"What we're experiencing in human services right now is a great need for shelter services ... whether it be shelter services at a hotel or potentially paying for rent to prevent an eviction so that we're not working with someone to find them a new place," Dragon said at last Thursday's Keene City Council meeting.
The funding request was referred at the meeting to the council's Finance, Organization and Personnel Committee for consideration.
According to the agenda packet for last week's council meeting, the human services department's general rental assistance budget for this fiscal year is $300,000 but it is currently over that by $442,520. The department is averaging $100,000 per month in housing assistance, putting the projected total additional expenditures at around $900,000.
Dragon said Keene's welfare director told her the city will likely continue to see the expenses driving the funding request over upcoming months due to “families and individuals that we are housing right now in various hotels.”
“The only way to move them out of those hotels is to find them permanent housing, and … that is definitely a challenge for a number of reasons,” Dragon added.
The agenda information, sent by Keene Human Services Manager Natalie Darcy, noted that high rents and a lack of affordable housing, an increase in referrals to the human services department, the removal of encampments where people experiencing homelessness had lived, and a growth in people from out of state moving to the city have all contributed to the situation.
In an email Dragon sent to a reporter Friday afternoon, she said there were "173 households presenting as homeless (not in shelters) that we have housed in hotels/motels" and added that the city had spent $421,246 this fiscal year for hotels providing shelter.
The agenda packet also stated that all area shelters were at capacity, and on average, 23 hotel rooms are in use, both by individuals and families.
“With … the city legally obligated by state statute to provide shelter for those in need, hotels were used as a means of shelter to house" people experiencing homelessness, the agenda packet stated. “… Human Services sees a daily stream of people seeking rent and homeless assistance."
It noted that landlord requirements for tenants to earn three times the rental rate to apply for housing have caused difficulties with placing people, and that hotel accommodations began in 2018 only in “rare and extenuating circumstances.” In 2020, federal funds allowed families to remain in apartments and hotels without requiring that they save money, while a rental moratorium forbade evictions, it added. After this funding ended, the agenda packet said some people turned to the city for assistance.
Dragon said the city has been brainstorming ways to meet the need but hasn’t found anything to significantly reduce expenses.
“In the past, when we have experienced overages in human services, we have been able to absorb them in other areas of the finance [department] budget due to vacancies or other changes that have happened during the year,” Dragon said. “But they’ve never been this substantial.”
She also encouraged people to support State Senate Bill 406, which would send funds to New Hampshire communities helping with homelessness prevention. Mayor Jay Kahn added that the bill had recently been discussed on a statewide mayor’s conference call and that various cities are collecting data on budgeted and actual expenses to present to the New Hampshire Legislature.
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