Eight New Hampshire mayors are making a unified call for Gov. Chris Sununu and state officials to take more action to help the state’s unhoused population.
“The state of New Hampshire’s systems of care for individuals experiencing or at-risk of homelessness are not meeting the needs of communities across the state and are contributing to a statewide homelessness crisis,” the mayors wrote in a letter sent Jan. 3.
But in response to the letter, Sununu defended his policies and the investments already made and criticized cities like Manchester for not effectively using the funds they already have.
Eight of New Hampshire’s 13 mayors — including those in Manchester, Nashua, Claremont and Dover — signed onto the letter.
The call for action comes after a series of incidents in Manchester that underscored the severity of the state’s homelessness crisis: Two unhoused people died last week, and a baby was hospitalized after his mother, who was unhoused, allegedly gave birth in frigid conditions. The mayors and other public officials say nonprofit organizations and community action programs that support the unhoused can’t handle the pace at which the state’s homelessness crisis is growing.
The American Friends Service Committee, which coordinates Homeless Persons Memorial Day efforts in New Hampshire, reported that at least 95 unhoused people died in 2022. According to the New Hampshire Coalition to End Homelessness, the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness nearly tripled from 2019 to 2021. Housing rights advocates and public officials have reported that they’ve had to turn individuals away from their winter shelters because they don’t have enough beds available.
The mayors’ letter specifically criticized Sununu for not doing more to respond to an earlier letter from all 13 of the state’s mayors in 2020, in which they asked him to establish a statewide collaborative effort for addressing homelessness.
Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, who was the main author of the letter, said the state’s inadequate care systems have exacerbated the housing crisis across the state.
But the governor’s office rebuffed several of the mayors’ requests, stating that the request for support from the New Hampshire National Guard is “impossible.”
“The unprecedented request to call in the National Guard when federal funding hasn’t been spent by many of the municipalities who signed this letter is impossible,” Sununu’s office said in a statement.
Sununu’s team also said the state allocated $4 million to support shelters last fall, and that cities should reconsider their spending choices. The statement didn’t elaborate on if the state would give more funding and support for medical services, shelter for women or emergency shelter beds.
But Concord Mayor Jim Bouley — one of the signatories of the letter sent in 2020 — said he declined to add his name to this one, saying he didn’t think another letter “was the appropriate approach to take if looking to solve a problem.”
“If you’re going to solve an issue like this, you need to sit down face to face in the room together and have a conversation, and I didn’t feel the letter did that,” he told the Concord Monitor.
— JEONGYOON HAN/NH PUBLIC RADIO
