Tip of the iceberg: City listening sessions seek to gather input from residents on helping unhoused people

LACONIA — City leaders are planning forums, starting in October, where citizens can voice their input to solutions for the city’s homelessness problem, part of developing a citywide strategic plan.

Mayor Andrew Hosmer, Laconia Police Det. Eric Adams, Navigating Recovery of the Lakes Region Executive Director Daisy Pierce, and other leaders will coordinate the listening sessions, scheduled to focus time in each ward, as well as with business owners and those with lived experience.

Hosmer, Adams, and Pierce met Aug. 4 with The Daily Sun's editorial staff to discuss plans for the upcoming forums.

Both Adams and Hosmer said the purpose of these meetings are to look for solutions and educate, not to complain, about the presence of people experiencing homelessness in the community. The sessions will be moderated, including discussion questions shared ahead of time.

“People experiencing homelessness right now, we need to make sure these people are being treated with respect,” Hosmer said, referring to the homeless issue as just the tip of the iceberg. “Just below the surface are issues of mental health, housing affordability and substance abuse disorder.”

“Between COVID, inflation, prices going up, people just can’t afford the properties that they own,” said Adams, who works extensively with the city’s homeless population. “It’s not just a Laconia problem. It’s nationwide right now.”

The listening sessions are in response to recent increases in the population of people experiencing homelessness in the city.

“There’s been a lot of things that have been going around social media-wise and conversation that the city is not doing anything, and we’re having all these encampments, where are these people coming from and things like that,” Adams said. “We’ve seen a large uptick in people that struggle with homelessness that come to this area and are from this area and have lost their housing, so the city needs to come together and identify what we can do.”

Leadership in the city doesn’t currently have an overarching solution to unhoused people, due to the economic and social complexities tied to homelessness. Leaders such as Adams and Hosmer want as much community input as possible before moving forward with any major initiatives, including the strategic plan. 

The data gathered from the forums will be shared with the mayor's homelessness task force, in order to develop the strategic plan.

"We can’t think a solution will work because a few of us think it's a great idea and not consider the impact it has on that part of the city,” Hosmer said. “We need to get people’s input and process that and work it through.”

“It’s not often the city you live in says ‘come and tell us your ideas',” said  Pierce. “I think that’s unique to the city of Laconia.”

Pierce said Navigating Recovery will support the educational aspect of the forums, with hopes of dispelling common stigmas associated with drug abuse and homelessness. 

“One of our goals is to provide education to community members about what resources there are, what is being done, and a little bit about people experiencing homeless because there’s a lot of misconceptions,” she said, such as “people not willing to work, seeking employment, being comfortable being homeless. That's not the case for everyone.”

As part of the educational aspect of the forums, Pierce said there will be some people who are experiencing homelessness present to share their thoughts and experiences.

“When it comes to any population, lived experience is incredibly important,” Pierce said, “they know it best. They’ve lived it. They know what could work and what hasn’t worked for them.”

As economic turmoil continues worldwide, it's likely that more and more people will find themselves unable to find somewhere stable to live.

According to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, approximately 1,675 people in New Hampshire are experiencing homelessness on a given day. In 2020, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released data that said 580,466 people experienced homelessness nationwide on a single night. Another study by the Economic Round Table stated that "recession is projected to cause chronic homelessness to increase 49 percent," from 2020 to 2024, with over 600,000 working-age adults becoming homeless in 2023. 

“I’m afraid we’re going to see more hard-working folks that can’t make ends meet,” Adams said. “We as a city should have a plan in place to not only help, but also you’re going to have people that are hard-working who don't think their tax dollars should go to someone who doesn’t seem to want help, but the reality is that most people struggling want help to get back on their feet. They don’t want to just live off the system.”

The Partnership for Public Health will facilitate pre-registration for the events.

Adams said he welcomes local businesses support in the planning of the forums. To learn how to help, contact him at eadams@laconiapd.org or 603-832-8323.