With shelters full, city welfare budget climbs

LACONIA — City Finance Director Glen Smith told councilors the costs for managing the municipal welfare program continue climbing during a budget meeting on Tuesday night.

Ninety four percent of the city’s welfare expenses are associated with housing. 

The total amount spent to fulfill welfare vouchers across various categories has steadily increased each year since 2021. 

In fiscal year 2021, the total spent by the city for its welfare program was $24,109, at a relative cost of $330 per voucher. There were 73 vouchers issued. In fiscal year 2022, fewer vouchers were issued at 63, but the overall cost increased to $40,607, at an average cost of $644 per voucher. In fiscal year 2023, $64,394 was spent on 137 vouchers, at $470 per voucher. In fiscal year 2024, the city spent $141,477 on 248 vouchers, at an average cost of $570 per voucher.

Between January and April in fiscal year 2025, $192,131 across 253 vouchers was spent, at an average cost of $759 each. 

Some of the items provided for through vouchers included burials; electric, oil or propane assistance; rent assistance; shelter expenses; and transportation assistance. 

“Costs are high, and we don’t expect that to change,” Smith said. “So far this year $192,000, up from about $24,000 in FY ‘21, granted that was when there was some COVID money coming in — that was kind of at the beginning of the pandemic and such — but even prior to that, it was nowhere near where it is now.”

Changes in the economy and the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic have provided a sea change in regards to welfare, which is a demand-response service. 

“We have no [social workers] at the city. We’re not providing counseling service. We do what we can, but our mandate is to respond to people who walk through the door and say, ‘We need help,’” Smith said. 

The average cost of $759 per voucher is directly tied to a lack of shelter space.

“Carey House is full, Belknap House is full,” Smith said. “When that happens, and people come in needing shelter, we have to move up to the next level which is putting people in hotels or motels. That’s where things start getting expensive and that’s why you’re seeing the average cost of the voucher going up astronomically. Frankly, until we see some kind of movement on either the state or federal level or development of low-cost housing options — more opportunities like the Carey House, like the Belknap House, like Isaiah's — where people can find housing that doesn’t cost us $1,000 a week, then things are going to stay high.”

Smith noted every community in New Hampshire and most across the country are experiencing the same challenges. They’re dealing with regional problems through a local response. 

“We tend to think of the population that needs the welfare as a single entity, and it's not that case,” Smith said. “We have people who have mental health issues, we have people who have substance abuse issues and then we have a lot of people who just live paycheck to paycheck, have a physical job and fell and broke their leg and now they’re out of work for six weeks — we help those folks too.”

The vast majority of all the city’s welfare expenses go to providing shelter, about 73%.

“Another 21% is rent — rent is what we pay to keep people where they are,” Smith said.

There are residency requirements associated with receiving city welfare. As it stands today, if somebody walks through their door, city welfare staff are required to help them. But if they’re not from Laconia, help could be defined as referring them back to their home community. 

“We do have the ability to then bill the other town,” Smith said. “That doesn’t happen often because, frankly, most of the time they just go to the other community. When it does happen, most of the time, the other communities step right up to the plate — we all work really well together.” 

Staff often help residents by referring them to local agencies who are better able to assist. Those referrals save some of the expense. But with local shelters full, it puts the city in a tricky position.

“If we are no longer able to do that, then the mandate that has been put on us by the state, it still says we have to help, but now that might mean increasingly writing a check.”