Hosmer signs joint mayors' letter to Sununu: State must do more to address homelessness

Laconia Mayor Andrew Hosmer joined seven other New Hampshire mayors in signing a letter to Gov. Chris Sununu imploring him to do more to address homelessness in the state.

“The State of New Hampshire’s systems of care for individuals experiencing or at-risk of homelessness are not meeting the needs of communities across the state and are contributing to a statewide homelessness crisis,” the letter reads.

“The state hasn’t offered up any leadership,” Hosmer said in an interview Tuesday. “The state has taken in billions of federal dollars in COVID relief money ... and the biggest issue facing the city is homelessness.”

Notably, according to the letter, the cost to provide emergency shelter is about $45 per person per day, while the state provides $8 per person per day.

When municipalities don’t receive funding and support from the state, “the costs get downshifted onto the backs of taxpayers” and add stress to city services, Hosmer said.

“In Laconia, this affects quality of life, finances, our health care delivery network ... this impacts everyone, one way or another,” he said.

The number of people experiencing homelessness, already at dire levels going into 2022, skyrocketed last year, the letter emphasizes, and collaboration between the state and major municipalities to address the issue has not progressed.

“In November 2020, all 13 of New Hampshire’s mayors wrote a letter to Governor Sununu stating that ‘homelessness is a crisis experienced by each of our communities that needs to be a top priority addressed at the state level,’” continued Tuesday’s letter, also addressed to state Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Weaver. “Two years have passed since this letter was received, and there has been no improvement in collaboration with local communities in addressing homelessness in New Hampshire.”

Sununu released a statement Tuesday afternoon responding to the letter.

"The tone and misleading content contained in the Mayors’ letter is disappointing considering the team approach that is so important on an issue as critical as this," the statement began. "The state has made unprecedented investments to address this issue and continues to identify additional pathways working through the Continuum of Care model."

Sununu criticized the signed municipalities for not utilizing all the federal aid they received — specifically pointing to Manchester — and asserted that the state made sizable investments in both housing programs and emergency resources.

"Collectively, the municipalities that signed onto the letter received more than $73 million in American Rescue Plan Funds and Coronavirus Relief Funding that could directly be used for housing, homelessness, and lower income families," and "$4 million was provided [by the state] this fall to shelters across the state to maintain or increase capacity for the winter," the statement continued. "This unprecedented support has established an additional 348 beds statewide to support the needs of individuals experiencing homelessness."

Hosmer said the letter was prompted by the lack of response to its predecessor as well as by the governor’s refusal to attend a meeting that state mayors requested in December to discuss the end of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program.

The letter did not specifically reference the mayors' 2020 letter or their request for a December meeting about the end of the emergency rental assistance program — which Sununu's statement highlighted as a major funding source to cities. The program was paused in October and ran out last month. The letter did note that meetings between municipalities and DHHS are "the ideal opportunity for municipalities to join with the state and local partners to work on solutions."

In addition to criticizing Sununu for scant state cooperation and investment, the mayors outlined both a long-term need to address accessible housing availability and lists immediate needs to mitigate the dangers of winter for those without stable housing — including increased shelters and resources for women and adolescents, medical respite beds, higher volume of emergency shelter space and greater funding from the state for existing resources. 

Mayors from Berlin, Claremont, Dover, Franklin, Manchester, Nashua and Somersworth were also signatories, while those from Concord, Keene, Lebanon, Portsmouth and Rochester were not. 

Last year, Hosmer’s task force to address homelessness, first launched late in 2020, upped its efforts, hosting public forums across the city with all residents, including those experiencing homelessness.

“Prior to COVID-19, our city hovered in the area of 80 to 100 unsheltered children, adults and families,” said Laconia police Det. Eric Adams, who spearheads the task force, at the first of those forums in October. “Since then, we’ve seen a huge uptick in the population with numbers roughly in the 300 to 400 range.”

The forums’ purpose is to collect community data, stories and ideas that will inform Laconia’s strategic plan to combat this issue. That information gathering is ongoing. Most recently, the task force met with local businesses. Its final forum with unhoused residents will take place at Isaiah 61 Café and has not been scheduled yet.

The city also opened a cold weather emergency shelter in the Dube building at the former Laconia State School this winter. Such resources are life-saving, Hosmer said, but what New Hampshire does for residents without stable housing must go beyond that.

“We haven’t addressed the long-term issue behind housing insecurity ... and the issue has only gotten worse,” Hosmer said. 

"They could do more," Franklin Mayor Jo Brown said of the state's cooperation and investment on this issue. "I don't think you can over communicate."

According to Brown, the statewide changes that would most mitigate homelessness in Franklin are improvements to mental health services. 

"Like all cities, we're doing the best we can with what we have," she said.

Headline-making deaths of unhoused people in Manchester as well as the widespread loss of utilities in recent winter storms also heighten public passions on the issue.

“We’re all feeling more vulnerable right now,” Hosmer said.