Let’s do the math. Last winter there were an average of 27 people at the Concord cold-weather shelter. McKenna House added 16 beds, and the coalition has a grant for 10 apartments. The end of homelessness in Concord, right? Sorry, but as long as the city has a policy to attract freeloaders and enable substance abusers, this is a problem you can’t build your way out of.

Several people homeless by economics or philosophy rather than health have complained that the city needs separate dry and wet shelters. I would go further and say that shelter staff and guests should not have to deal with physically or mentally unstable people, who should be routed to the emergency room at Concord Hospital for appropriate treatment.

Health care issues including mental illness and substance abuse should be dealt with by the health care system not the welfare system, and the hospital should be a starting point.

Similarly, taxpayers should not be required to enable substance abuse by providing free housing so abusers can spend their own money on drugs and alcohol. Shelter guests with jobs or disability checks should be charged a fee of say $10 per night, and it might be surprising how many no longer need shelter but would rather slip the $10 to a friend for a couch.

Those truly without funds could have the fee paid by the city welfare department and work it off shoveling snow or similar public service.

Once the need shrinks to maybe half a dozen sober individuals, it should be less troublesome to find a suitable space, and by removing bad actors from the mix the shelter could hopefully be managed by residents with no need for paid overnight staff.

One last third-rail issue. Refugees are unlikely to become homeless themselves, but between professional job search assistance and jumping to the head of the line for housing, they soak up low-end jobs and housing that might keep other people from being homeless.

Concord has been assigned nearly as many refugees as Manchester, which has a much larger population, and major communities such as Portsmouth, Salem and Keene receive none at all.

If all refugees had been distributed to the 14 largest communities in New Hampshire in proportion to population, Concord would have received 1,084 fewer. The Concord school tax rate is probably $1 per thousand more than it would be if state and federal aid covered the extra cost for refugee children.

Concord should welcome a reasonable number of refugees but should expect other communities to accept their fair share also.

(Roy Schweiker lives in Concord.)