Two months ago, state and local leaders cut the ribbon on what they described as a first-of-its kind promise to New Hampshire veterans: the new Easterseals Military and Veterans Campus, a $50 million project designed to provide low-cost housing, social services, and community for the state’s veterans.
“Together, all of us are fulfilling our promise back to those who serve, and that’s what this campus is all about,” Maureen Beauregard, CEO for Easterseals in New Hampshire and Vermont, told a crowd that included Gov. Kelly Ayotte and other officials.
But just 10 weeks after the center formally opened, it appears to be in turmoil.
Four members of the campus’s leadership team — including its head, former Manchester Police Chief Allen Aldenberg — have resigned in protest in recent days, citing a range of concerns, including mismanagement and poor treatment by Easterseals. And some veterans living on the campus allege that Easterseals has prioritized the site’s money-making hotel and conference center that share the site, and has disregarded their needs.
In a Dec. 1 resignation letter, Nick Grant, a veteran who was the head of sales for the campus’ conference center and hotel, accused Easterseals leadership of poor planning and interference with the mission to support veterans.
“I can no longer work under a leadership team that, in my professional opinion, lacks the understanding, commitment, and respect necessary to operate an organization intended to serve veterans,” read the letter, a copy of which was obtained by NHPR.
Meanwhile, several of the two dozen veterans who have moved to the campus this year told NHPR they feel like Easterseals is putting their needs secondary to conference center guests and financial supporters. For instance, they said they were surprised to learn they may not have full and free access to the therapy programs, including the planned pool and recreation center.
“We're just helping fundraise,” said Leighanne Fernald, a 59-year-old Navy veteran who moved to the campus in June. Grant, in his resignation letter this week, echoed that sentiment: “Veterans are being leveraged as a means to secure financing, publicity, and institutional accolades — with little focus on delivering meaningful, sustainable support,” he wrote.
In an emailed statement, Beauregard defended Easterseals’ management of the facility, and said the leadership team that has now resigned failed to address issues despite being repeatedly asked to.
“In the last several months of final preparation and launch of the opening of the Military and Veterans Campus, Easterseals NH leadership became aware of operational and logistical problems that needed attention,” Beauregard said. “As a new business start-up, the plan that was developed was not implemented as designed. Unfortunately, despite repeated efforts to make corrections, the recommendations were not followed by the campus staff. We accepted their resignations.”
Beauregard did not identify specific concerns that she or others raised with the campus leadership. She said Easterseals remains committed to supporting veterans, including its residents, and has put an interim leadership team in place as of this week.
“We are sorry if anyone feels like a [fundraising] prop,” Beauregard said. “These are veterans and their families. We are honored to serve them and work with them.”
A planned haven for veterans
The new veterans campus in Franklin, a former farm and orphanage, spans 15-acres, and includes 29 subsidized apartments for veterans, a 22-room hotel, and a 1,500 square foot conference center. Fundraising is underway for a pool and aquatics therapy building and a recreation facility that will include equine and dog therapy.
Former Gov. Chris Sununu announced plans for the campus in 2022, and the state later awarded Easterseals $23 million in federal pandemic aid to build out the project. According to the group’s website, the agency is seeking to raise an additional $27 million to complete the campus.
Beauregard told veterans at the opening ceremony in September, “to you who serve or have served, we see you, we know you and we are here for you.”
But some veterans who've moved to the campus for its low-income housing, behavioral health supports, therapies, and sense of community, told NHPR they feel Easterseals has backed away from that commitment, and instead are favoring the site’s biggest revenue generators: the hotel and conference center.
Swim With a Mission, a veteran’s support organization, is raising money for a heated pool and fitness center on the campus. Brian Glaski, a 47-year-old Army veteran, said the subsidized rent and aquatics and fitness center prompted him to move to the campus in October.
Glaski was surprised to learn that those amenities are not included in his lease and may come with a fee.
A memo Easterseals drafted in response to residents’ questions earlier this year touched on that issue: “It should never be assured that residents will have free and unlimited access to these amenities. As the next stages come to fruition, campus staff will provide guidance on what residents can utilize and if there will be a fee associated with any amenity, but they are not there yet.”
Swim With a Mission did not return a message asking if they knew veterans living on the Franklin campus may have limited access to the aquatics center they are developing.
Asked if the pool would be off-limits to residents, Beauregard said in a statement, “No pool has been installed, and we have not finalized plans for its installation and use.”
Some veterans said Easterseals is not providing the supportive, problem-solving environment they anticipated.
Army veteran Tim Marchand, 68, moved to the campus in October. He said was shocked when an eviction notice was slipped under his door on Wednesday for his first month’s rent. Marchand, who says he spent more than a year living in the woods before moving to the campus, says he arranged for his bank to transfer his rent payment to Easterseals the first of every month.
Marchand said he received another eviction notice because staff believed he was smoking in his room, something he denies. That notice was also slipped under his door, he said.
“They didn’t even knock on the door to hand it to me,” Marchand said. “Wouldn’t you knock on the door if there was smoke pouring out from under it? I was here and nobody knocked on my door.”
Beauregard said no residents have been evicted.
Michele Talwani, Easterseals’ chief communication officer, said staff call a resident when rent is overdue and follow the call with a rent demand and eviction notice, in compliance with the state’s eviction law. The next step is court. In an email, Easterseals disputed Marchand’s account and said staff took a more lenient approach with him.
Easterseals sent Marchand an invoice, the statement said, and contacted his social worker asking them to help Marchand resolve the issue.
“Unfortunately, the resident will not/has not engaged with staff who have knocked at his door and called him,” the statement said.
Marchand told NHPR he still believes his bank has paid his rent.
When a local food pantry and restaurant donated food for the veterans' community room, Easterseals made residents throw it out, according to Fernald and Glaski. Photos show the room’s cupboards and refrigerator packed with canned goods, pasta, cereal, fresh produce, and meat. But in an email to a resident, an Easterseals staffer said the donated groceries amounted to a food pantry, which the campus was not licensed to run — so the food had to be gone within 24 hours.
“We are blessed to have this place to live as many were homeless but we served our country and refuse to be treated as POWs without basic human rights,” Glaski said. “We are veterans helping veterans, as many of the veterans here are still regaining their dignity or don't feel comfortable coming out around a lot of people. So we work with them where they are at and do what we can to see they are taken care of and cared about.”
Beauregard said residents can store the food in their apartments. She said the community room refrigerator is needed for events.
Not all residents voiced complaints.
Craig Lapine, a 45-year-old Army veteran, moved into his one-bedroom apartment in August. He had been paying $2,000 a month plus utilities in Manchester. Now he pays $800 a month for everything. Lapine said that’s enough to make him happy.
“I’ve been through three deployments. I know what it's like to be in shitty f— living conditions," he said. “So when I got this place, it was actually really helpful.”
“We do not deserve that”
While Easterseals made sure to hire veterans to help launch, promote, and run the campus from Day One, the entire top level of leadership – nearly all veterans – has resigned in recent days. That includes Aldenberg, who left his job as Manchester’s police chief to launch the campus and lead military and veterans services one year ago.
Aldenberg, a brigadier general in the New Hampshire National Guard, told NHPR that he quit one week ago after realizing the job wasn’t what he expected. He and his team were charged with not only connecting with veterans groups but also building out the campus’ housing, hotel, and conference center versus direct services to veterans.
Aldenberg didn’t have that business background and told Beauregard approximately two months ago that he wasn’t the right person for the job. Easterseals bought in a business consultant but ultimately Aldenberg and Beauregard agreed he would leave at the end of January, after helping transition someone else into the role. Easterseals announced the change in a press release the day before Thanksgiving.
Aldenberg resigned the next day, effective immediately, after learning about an internal Easterseals document that criticized his team’s work. The comments were “inaccurate and unforgivable,” he said and a “line in the sand.” He declined to be specific and Easterseals said it would not release the internal document.
Aldenberg’s team resigned in the days that followed. His deputy on the campus, Frank Swirko, served 42 years in the Army. Grant, who led sales for the conference center, spent four. Karen Hudson Lounsbury, whose late son served in the military, also resigned her job managing volunteers for the campus.
In his resignation letter, Grant wrote: “When two senior-most military leaders, individuals who embody the highest standards of character and service, determine that they cannot ethically or effectively execute the mission under the current leadership constraints, it should serve as a serious warning about the direction and internal culture of the Campus.”
Aldenberg shared their anger but hoped to leave quietly. He did not want to draw negative attention to Easterseals or the veterans campus. “I don't want them to fail,” he said. “What veteran would want a place for veterans to fail?”
Aldenberg added, “My whole intent here was for me to just have a very amicable separation and leave like an adult.”
That changed Thursday when Beauregard responded to NHPR’s questions for this story with a statement saying the campus leadership team had not lived up to expectations.
The statement prompted Aldenberg to speak publicly for the first time to defend his teams’ work and commitment to the mission.
“I don't deserve it. The people that work for me don't deserve it,” Aldenberg said. “We're not perfect, but we do not deserve that.”
In her statement, Beauregard said Easterseals “greatly appreciates” Aldenberg’s efforts. She said the organization has put an interim team in place in the wake of the resignations. “Easterseals NH endeavors to preserve the mission of serving service members, veterans, first responders, and their families who seek our services,” she said.
Editor's note: Easterseals NH is an NHPR underwriter, but, like all underwriters, they have no influence or input into how we cover the news.