Isaiah 61 Cafe's cold weather shelter gets green light

LACONIA — The 30-bed low-barrier shelter at Isaiah 61 Cafe will be open from Dec. 1 through March 31, 2023, regardless of the weather or outdoor temperature, after securing city approvals last month to provide overnight shelter during the coldest part of the year.

For Dennis Vallaincourt, who has spent several winters outside, and others in line for hot lunch at the soup kitchen on New Salem Street, it’s comforting news.

Why? “Because I live out there,” said Vallaincourt, sweeping his hand toward the wndow. “I don’t sleep. I just keep walking” at night, especially when it’s too cold to stand still.

As cities and towns statewide grapple with rising numbers of people experiencing homelessness, communities in the Lakes Region, including Laconia, are trying to figure out ways to meet a critical need that has expanded since COVID — particularly during winter.

At a Housing Stability Solutions Summit in Concord in October, representatives from municipalities across New Hampshire said they have been exceeding their budgets to put unsheltered residents in hotels, which can cost as much as $6,000 per month. They also stressed the need for outdoor warming shelters in locations throughout the state.

Laconia’s experts on homelessness say the number of unsheltered individuals in and around the city has nearly tripled since before the pandemic.

“As everyone knows, openings [in rental housing] don’t come as quickly for the low-income group,” said Paula Ferenc, executive director of Belknap House, which provides temporary housing and supports for homeless families. Two weeks ago, a family of three at Belknap House was able to move into permanent rental housing. The supportive housing program receives two or three calls a week from families in dire straits and agencies seeking to find stop-gap shelter options while families get back on their feet.

“I’m very grateful to have Isaiah 61,” Ferenc said. “It’s huge for the community.”

Dawn Longval, president and founder of the faith-based soup kitchen and seasonal shelter, said more people have been requesting to be put on the list for a regular bed this winter. When its shelter section received temporary approval to open last January, 15 people stayed overnight on a regular basis, and 15 beds were filled by others who took turns, one night indoors followed by one night outside. “There are definitely more people” who are living and sleeping outside, Longval said.

“People are out there for a reason,” said Amanda Fort, a soup kitchen volunteer. Some people who don’t like individuals experiencing homelessness or their encampments “go out there slashing tents and stealing stuff. So they go further and further into the woods where they can’t be found” — which becomes more dangerous in cold weather. Some return to downtown because their campsites have been ravaged, and it’s easier to keep walking.

“They’re downtown because they just got booted out of the woods,” said Fort, who visits the Rotary Park gazebo daily to pass out food and blankets to those in need. “I brought 60 tacos to hand out there because there’s nothing for them to eat at night.”

While Isaiah 61 Cafe has cleared governmental hurdles to permanently offer overnight shelter from December through March, community activists, city officials, nonprofit organizations and mental health service providers are brainstorming way to supplement services and offer more shelter options to accommodate increased demand from people who have recently lost housing, including individuals and families who are now "couch surfing" — rotating between friends and family until they can find a permanent place to stay, and others who are living and sleeping in tents and cars.

Kenzo Morris, a volunteer from Real Life Church, which serves a Sunday meal and distributes clothing to people experiencing homelessness, said although positive changes have happened locally to better their lives, much remains to be done and community awareness and empathy need to increase.

To raise funds for a secondhand trailer to house clothing donated to people in need, Morris camped in the woods in a makeshift tent for three nights, then held a candlelight vigil Sunday night at the gazebo in Rotary Park. It’s too early to tell how many donations have come for the project via the Real Life Church website.

At the vigil, people mentioned things they need: flashlights, wool socks, long johns, packets of dry food, hand warmers. Morris camped in the woods to experience a piece of what their lives must be like.

“I struggled with food and how people look at you. It was lonely. I had to think three steps ahead. How am I going to say warm? How will I get food? They’re doing that every day. When you’re not eating you feel sluggish. Your mind is kind foggy,” Morris said.

Morris said while standing outside Cumberland Farms on Court Street, he helped a woman having trouble with her car. She gave him $17 for food, which he tried to make last for three days. “Do I buy a banana for $0.69? I found ramen noodles for $0.25. This is what they’re going through every day.”

He was chased away for loitering. Disheveled and dressed in soiled clothes from constructing his campsite, he was easily mistaken for someone experiencing homelessness.

“I was getting that perception,” said Morris. “It’s a big thing in the community.” When passersby see someone they believe is homeless, down comes the shroud of judgement. “The perception of homelessness is drug addiction. There are so many different reasons. It’s not one note."

Kim, who volunteers at Isaiah 61 and declined to give her last name for privacy reasons, said she became homeless when she was evicted from her apartment at age 50 because her landlord was selling the building, which has since been remodeled into condos. She couch-surfed, then lived outside during January and February 2018, she said, sleeping “in doorways and shadows as a single woman. I climbed into dumpsters to get out of the wind.”

Now 54 and with a permanent place to live, she hopes to shine a community spotlight on a painful and universal issue. People experiencing homeless include those who misuse drugs and alcohol and become addicted, people on fixed incomes who can’t afford rising rents, and people with mental illness, she said.

“I want to end homelessness,” she said after the candlelight vigil on Sunday. “I want to bring hope to people who don’t have hope. I’ve become friends with them. I want to be part of the solution, boots on the ground. We need more affordable housing, emergency cold weather beds, and second chances for people. People deserve that,” she said.

At Isaiah Cafe where she has volunteered for over three years, “The people we serve have tripled in the last two years. It’s definitely grown since COVID. People have to stop saying ‘Not in my backyard.’ They have to open their eyes to the fact” that homelessness is a real problem affecting a multitude.

At Isaiah Cafe, the comments of soup kitchen guests repeat like a sorrowful refrain.

“They feel stuck, like this will never end,” she said. “They feel stuck, and they don’t have much hope.”