Kenzo Morris sleeps outdoors on a mission to help the homeless

LACONIA — In a secluded spot in the woods, Kenzo Morris has set up camp.  

His makeshift tent is fashioned from dead branches that he cut with a hand saw, and covered with the plastic tarp his church hands out to people experiencing homelessness who come for clothes and a meal on Sundays.  Inside is his sleeping bag, and a metal firebox packed with tiny sticks he has gathered to cook oatmeal over an open flame.

It’s a remote location. He found it by fording a stream. Downtown traffic makes a faint hum. It’s almost completely dark. He has glow sticks to read his Bible.

“How you effect change is by letting people know about it,” Morris said. “I’m willing to suffer to make a change and hope I can.”

When someone decides to sleep outside for three nights, it’s not usually in November, at an isolated spot in the woods, or by themselves — in conditions that mimic the bare-bones experience of people who are homeless and forced to live outdoors.

For Morris, 49, who grew up in poverty in this city and today helps feed and clothe those without a place to live, it’s a mission of urgency and love.

“I really do care,” he said. As a child in a family of seven, “There were days I didn’t eat and days I had to stay home from school because we only had three pairs of pants” between five kids. Morris seldom had money for hot lunch.

“I know what it’s like to be at school and have to eat out of trash cans,” he said. “If some kid didn’t want his lunch, I’d grab it.”

Once a week his family collected loaves of bread left outside the Nissen bakery in Laconia before trash collectors came to remove it.

“I empathize,” he said. “There are so many people who are struggling.”

Morris’ three days and nights in the woods will culminate Sunday at 6 p.m. with a candlelight vigil in Rotary Park to bring awareness to homelessness and poverty, which are expected to reach critical levels this winter, according to city and church-based outreach leaders.

He considers his mission a calling in a world where desperate, overlooked people are searching for beacons of hope and ways to better their lives.

Echoing the words of Martin Luther King Jr., Morris said, “Don’t expect a bootless man to pick himself up by his bootstraps. You need the help of the community. You need the help of people.”

With a team of fellow parishioners, Morris serves meals on Sundays from noon to 2 p.m. behind Real Life Church, where they also distribute clothing and outdoor gear — some donated by passersby who return with items that unhoused people can use.

“We have to help them or they’ll die in the snow,” Morris said. “Growing up very poor, there were days I didn’t eat. I had to do these kinds of things. It’s personal to me when I see other people suffering. Even though you don’t have a lot, you share with your brother or sister when you saw that they were hungry.”  

He said he’s heartened by the community support he’s seen so far as people drive by on weekends.

One woman brings fresh bread that she bakes. Another person brought 12 jackets.

He met a man at his health club and mentioned his work through Helping Hands at Real Life Church. He came back a week later with 17 boxes of new sneakers in his car trunk — shoes he’d purchased but never wore, all size 11.  The next Sunday, 17 men experiencing homelessness came to collect the shoes — which fit them.

“That excites me when I see someone get something they need,” Morris said. He believes coincidences like this are the hand of God.

Recently, through the Real Life Church website, a family who had just lost their son offered to donate all his clothes as "Brian’s gift."

“Even in their suffering, they could see somebody else’s need,” Morris said.

Stephanie Savard, director of the New Hampshire Coalition to End Homelessness, said her organization and service providers statewide expect the number of unsheltered families and individuals to rise this winter as the demand exceeds available shelter space.

“We’ve seen a huge increase in our shelter population,” said Det. Eric Adams, coordinator of prevention, enforcement and treatment for the Laconia Police Department. “It’s hard to say what the one factor is.”

Prior to COVID, the number of unsheltered people in the city hovered between 85 and 150, he said. The average is now 300 to 400.

“We’re higher than we’ve ever been,” Adams said. “It’s scary.

“Throughout the city, we are constantly hearing about not just the homeless, but also the working poor, who have economic pressure with the cost of heating fuel, high rents and food,” Mayor Andrew Hosmer said. “I’m not sure what people are going to do in this situation. I see segments of our population at the breaking point.” He said the city’s welfare department, nonprofits and religious charities will continue to work to fill the gap.

Dawn Longval, co-founder and director of Isaiah 62 Cafe, a soup kitchen on New Salem Street that added a 30-bed emergency cold weather shelter last January, said she expects the number of people living outside to rise this winter. She said it's partly because federal COVID relief subsidies to landlords for tenants who cannot afford to pay rent have ended, while the need remains strong.

Isaiah 61 Cafe serves free breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday to anyone in need, but Real Life Church provides the city’s only meal on Sunday.

“We fill in where they leave off,” Morris said. “We do better in life when we care about each other, when we care about our neighbors. We live in such a divided world.”

Real Life Church’s Helping Hands outreach accepts donations of clothing and money to buy food. Morris hopes to raise $3,00 to $4,000 through his awareness mission — enough to purchase a second-hand trailer to house donated clothing, which is currently stored in a leaky warehouse or in cartons in damp areas where it’s becoming too damaged to use.

“We need something enclosed so it can stay dry,” Morris said.

The church’s Helping Hands outreach collects money for winter clothes, tents and tarps. Church volunteers can pick up donated clothes, Morris said. The biggest need is currently the trailer. To contribute, visit RealLifeNH.org.

At the candlelight vigil on Sunday, Nov. 13, at 6 p.m., Morris and others will talk about the homeless crisis and share stories from survivors in Laconia.