Cold-weather shelter open for coming frigid weekend

LACONIA — The county's newest temporary cold-weather shelter at the Dube building on the State School property has yet to see use this winter, despite having been open four times. The shelter will be open again Friday through Sunday, and people will be allowed to stay in the building all day Saturday. The bus leaves from City Hall at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3.

The lack of use by those experiencing homelessness has baffled some organizers, while their objections are better understood by outreach workers. With a weekend projecting subzero temperatures, there is an extreme safety concern for the Belknap County's unsheltered population.

The shelter is operated by the Lakes Region Mental Health Center, and is funded by $95,000 from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services Homeless Assistance Program.

Due to funding, the shelter is not open nightly. Instead, the shelter is open on nights where the temperature is 20 degrees or less, or if there will be 6 inches or more of snow.

“No one is using the shelter,” said Lakes Region Mental Health Center Chief Executive Officer Maggie Pritchard, who said the center started bringing a bus to Isaiah 61 Cafe in case their beds were full.

“We thought, 'We'll start off at City Hall at 8 p.m. We'll wait there and see how many show up and swing by Isaiah and see if they're full.' We've done that for four nights and got no one.”

Isaiah 61 Cafe opened its cold-weather shelter last year, which has 30 beds. They have yet to reach capacity but have come close, according to outreach staff with the Community Action Program. The cafe has long been a hangout spot for the city’s population experiencing homelessness, providing free meals, live music and Bible studies for any member of the public.

Although they've had zero takers so far to stay at the Dube building, Pritchard reiterated that the shelter will be open all weekend due to incoming subzero temperatures.

“We’ll do it again," Pritchard said Thursday, “but if I was a betting woman, I don’t think we’ll get anyone.”

The shelter at the Dube building is considered low-barrier, meaning occupants do not have to be sober to stay the night, just like at Isaiah 61 Cafe. There is also transportation to and from the shelter, with a bus leaving City Hall at 8 p.m., and returning the following morning. So why aren't people using this free resource?

“It’s a little bit of a conundrum. We’ve been talking to the homeless outreach workers from Navigating Recovery to get the word out, the Congregational Church created a flier saying it’s going to be open,” Pritchard said of outreach efforts, adding that the same staff has been asking the homeless community why they don't want to use the shelter.

People have said, "'I don’t want to leave my stuff, I want to shovel snow off my tent so it doesn’t collapse, I want to be actively using and smoking and doing whatever I need to do to take care of myself,'” Pritchard said. “It’s a fair point. Where people keep their belongings, whether or not there’s honor amongst their neighbors, I had not anticipated that.”

“It's all a personal decision on their part. It’s about their belongings getting stolen,” said Daisy Pierce, executive director of Navigating Recovery, who said she was initially surprised at the community’s rejection of the shelter before hearing their reasons. “They can’t pack up everything and bring it with them to the shelter. They’re worried about losing their stuff.”

On the ground, outreach workers from CAP reiterated the focus on security of belongings.

“The leading reason is they are afraid their personal belongings won't be there when they get home,” said Freeman Toth, manager of Belknap and Merrimack counties' CAP Homeless Street Outreach Program. “The other reason I hear often is trauma, where someone is a victim of a trauma or assault and they know their abuser is utilizing that facility and they don't want to be in the same space.”

Others are in the early stages of recovery and might not find the environment conducive to their healing process.

“Another really common one is people can't go out in the middle of the night to have cigarette breaks,” Toth explained. “If you've just become part of the recovery community and you're trying to stay sober and you can't go out for smoke breaks, it's begging for a slip-up or setback, which is the more appropriate way to refer to a relapse.”

The shelter's inability to operate nightly in the winter has led to a lack of familiarity and consistency. Unlike Isaiah 61 Cafe, which has been a central hub for the local communities experiencing homelessness, the Dube building has no history other than a temporary COVID-19 quarantine ward during the pandemic.

“Familiarity is very important to people. The unknown of what the protocols will be, what they'll experience when they get there, what the accommodations will look like, all those unknowns, if you're suffering from PTSD, anxiety or any other mental health situation, going to something new is extremely difficult when your animal brain is the only thing left functioning,” Toth explained. “They're thinking of immediate, basic needs and they're not using logic like you and I because of all the horrible things they've had to live through and survive.”

For Scott Dunn, a former Meredith resident now experiencing homelessness after suffering extreme burns from a cooking accident, followed by an allergic reaction to medication last year, consistency would be ideal. That does not appear to be possible with the amount of funding and personnel currently available.

“The only thing I could say that could be better about it was if it wasn't like the rest of the shelters and had a constant place to be,” Dunn said. “Realistically, I don't foresee it being that bad of a place. Anything that's going to help people in my type of situation, I think we need more places like that.”

Dunn has been fortunate to secure a bed for three nights at Isaiah 61 Cafe. For him, use of the Dube building remains a non-issue. However, Dunn did acknowledge other people’s concerns regarding the security of their possessions.

For those who refuse shelter, they will be potentially risking their health and their lives as temperatures plummet this weekend. To prevent death and injury, CAP workers were helping to distribute additional cold-weather gear and shelter like tarps, sleeping bags and gloves on Thursday. Those interested in donating can find more information by visiting facebook.com/CAPStreetOutreach.

“Maybe we have a very resilient population of homeless people in the area or people are taking people in and letting them couch surf,” said Pritchard, wondering how people will survive. “I just don’t know.”

Toth confirmed that there are members of the community couch surfing, but doing so can put them at serious risk.

“Youth and a lot of females are able to cultivate couches,” Toth explained, “That's where the trafficking happens. There's a lot of folks that wind up having to do things they're not proud of for a place to stay and a lot of trauma they experience.”

For now, the Dube shelter will remain open through the weekend and will continue to open on nights where the temperature dips below 20 degrees.