Second sleep out for homelessness aims to raise $7,000

LACONIA — Early in the morning on Nov. 9, the first snowfall began. Little white specks descending from the sky, the cool wind blowing them astray. The trees, once orange and red, now littered with white, take up the horizon as the trek continues. After passing through a slowly rushing creek, the pain of getting caught in the seemingly infinite thorns persists while stepping through the woods. Upon hearing the faint crackle of a fire, a blue, makeshift tent reveals itself within the many layers of trees. Once again, Kenzo Morris is resting inside, beginning his long but noble three-day sleep-out fundraiser for people experiencing homelessness.

A year after his first campout, Morris lived outside for three days to raise awareness for the issue of homelessness in Laconia, and to raise money for a mobile outreach trailer the Real Life Church bought after his first fundraiser. Last year, Morris hoped to raise $4,000 to purchase the trailer. Donations of $8,000 far exceeded that goal.

This year, Morris is looking to add electricity to the trailer. This would allow Morris to make and distribute hot meals and provide a heating station for those staying outside in the cold months of the year.

“People really don't think about what the weather does to you, and how taxing it really can be on your body,” Morris explained. “When you're out in the elements and it's cold and it's raining, and you've been shivering, it becomes crucial to be able to have those things.”

Like last year, during his sleep out Morris only used items and clothing available to anyone experiencing homelessness from the soup kitchen at Real Life Church downtown. The tent he constructed to shield himself from the cold was made from dead wood and a large tarp.

But while the main goal for the sleep out is to bring awareness to the community, it also is a good reminder for Morris about what people experiencing homelessness go through during the winter.

“That night that was really cold, on that first snowy night here; I was shivering,” Morris said. “And I kept thinking, ‘Wow, the homeless have to do this. And they have to do it all the time. And they have to struggle each day. How am I going to do this? How am I going to do that?' It's a game of survival, you know, and you don't want to play it.”

After three days outside, Morris packed up his tent and ate a meal at Real Life Church's soup kitchen.

“I want something to change in my community. I really want it to change. And I hope that people see my heart. It has to be talked about; it has to be looked at. We have to come up with real solutions to make that change happen. And so I am willing to sacrifice for that.”

According to preliminary data from the annual point-in-time count held in January, the number of people experiencing homelessness grew by 52% from 2022 to 2023 in New Hampshire. And according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report, roughly 582,500 people were experiencing homelessness in the United States on a single night.

Dawn Longval, co-founder and director of Isaiah 61 Cafe, a soup kitchen and cold weather shelter downtown, said she expects to have more people come into the shelter this winter. Even though she is currently serving about 60 people daily and about 200 throughout the winter, she still has space in the 30 available beds. That may soon change, and she is afraid she will have to start turning people away for the first time.

Longval mentioned that last year, Community Action Program Belknap-Merrimack Counties provided the option for many unsheltered people to stay in hotels while getting back on their feet. That funding through the state is not continuing into this next year.

“It's not necessarily that there's more people, it's just that now they don't have the ability to get a hotel room,” Longval said. “I would say it's more from housing costs being so astronomically high ... we're figuring we might have to turn [people] away, which is sad.”

Longval is thinking long-term about how to solve this growing issue. She believes a good solution would be to build more affordable housing.

“Our vision is to someday have Isaiah houses, where there's transition homes that would have supervisory support there that would be living day-in and day-out with the people to try to help get them completely on their feet.”

The city has been trying to improve the housing situation and just this month approved a new housing development on Bay Street, which Longval was happy about. But Morris believes it is not enough, as it’s only 12 single-occupancy apartments. Morris is also worried about winter, when the unsheltered need an immediate solution.

Another temporary measure last year was an emergency, cold weather shelter at the former Laconia State School. Very few people used the space and Longval mentioned that it was too far from where people experiencing homelessness are staying to allow them to get there comfortably. The city has not yet established a warming shelter this year, but is working in collaboration with Lakes Region Mental Health Center to open a shelter to the public during certain hours of the day. But Mayor Andrew Hosmer believes that a temporary solution like this is only the beginning of what is needed for the city.

“I'm a believer in the housing-first model,” Hosmer said. “How do we help people move themselves along to go from an emergency-type shelter towards a supportive housing model to a larger space with fewer services and more independence and get them moving towards more independent living? Homelessness [and] housing isn't about one solution to fix the whole problem, it's about a lot of little steps forward."

Morris never intended to do the sleep out twice. But due to the continuing problems facing the homeless population in his city, he felt he had no choice. The location in the woods he chose this year has sentimental value. Morris was bullied as a child growing up in poverty and being interracial.

“I remember getting off that bus, me and my sister, and having all these rocks thrown at us. About 17 kids throwing rocks at us, calling us names,” Morris recalled.

To escape this discrimination, Morris would take to the woods near his childhood home in Laconia to be alone. These woods are the same where Morris stayed outside for the fundraiser. He remembers this spot in the woods as a safe space for him as a kid. It was peaceful out in nature, and the kids never followed him all the way down into the trees. That alone time, in his youth and now, allowed Morris to think about where he came from, and not to take anything for granted. To help people who need it.

“What I was doing then, kind of is like the beginning parts of what I'm doing right now. But being over in this area, I didn’t think that all these years later that I'd be here doing this.”

This year, Morris is hoping to raise $7,000 to install electricity in the trailer. To learn more about the fundraiser, visit reallifenh.org.

“It breaks my heart when I see somebody suffering,” Morris said. “We have to try to find real solutions, and that's a part of a community growing and figuring it out together.”