Manchester city officials and Families in Transition-New Horizons, a non-profit that manages homeless shelters, announced that they have identified a location for an emergency cold weather shelter.
The announcement comes following months of false starts in securing a building.
In a letter to the city that Mayor Joyce Craig shared publicly on Thursday, FIT-NH CEO Maria Devlin said it is planning to lease 10,000 square feet of space inside the now-vacant police station on Chestnut Street, which happens to be located across the street from the former homeless encampment on the lawn of the county courthouse building that was cleared by state police last month.
FIT-NH had originally rejected the building as an option, citing its unique layout which would require additional staffing.
“It is a very large building, and it has lots of doors, hallways, lots of office space. So it’s not ideal in the fact that we will have to just manage the space,” said Devlin.
Despite its drawbacks, the agency and mayor will now ask the Board of Aldermen to approve funding next week.
“We are getting closer and closer to when it is going to get colder and snowy, and this is
really the best option that we have available to us right now,” said Devlin.
If approved, the lease would run through April 15, with a price tag of $18,000 per month. Federal grant money distributed during the pandemic will cover the costs.
FIT-NH says the space will house around 50 people, socially distanced. With the organization also staffing two other shelters in the city, that brings the total number of beds to just under 200.
Last month, the city briefly considered turning the JFK Memorial Coliseum ice skating rink into a shelter, but that plan was dropped in favor of a commercial space in downtown. Hours after announcing the location of the commercial building, private developer Ben Gamache purchased the site to block the plan.
