From 2008 to 2015, the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness ran its resource center out of a sandy-colored building downtown with stained glass details, a round turret and renovated carriage house.
The organization would meet with clients there and help them access housing resources and other support through a partnership with South Congregational Church.
Now, back in the same building at 6 South State St., the coalition’s eight new supportive housing units aren’t just a homecoming for the organization itself but for the apartments’ soon-to-be tenants: ten people currently experiencing homelessness in the Concord area.
“Housing is the foundation on which everything else is built,” said Karen Janzten, executive director of the coalition. “Health, hope and opportunity.”
The coalition has 21 units of supportive housing of its own, including spaces on Pleasant Street and Green Street, plus five units it maintains at the Railyard Apartments in the South End.
While some tenants do eventually move out of supportive housing units and into other stable living arrangements, this housing isn’t necessarily transitional; it is intended for people in the city with acute needs.
Sweeps of two larger city encampments have left many of the coalition’s clients on edge. Getting citations, an arrest or losing a vital document in a police sweep can put them at risk of being denied housing support.
A typical candidate for these units, Jantzen explained, “is somebody who has a combination of extreme vulnerability for being outside, whether that’s medically impaired, or physically impaired… and someone who’s actively engaged with us and really working hard to become housed.”
The building has seven one-bedroom apartments and one two-bedroom apartment, as well as offices for coalition staff and space where service providers can come in and meet with tenants.
It will help keep residents connected to everything from mental health and substance use counselors to medical care that helps with daily living skills. The living arrangement also connects tenants to each other, fostering community among neighbors at a time when many formerly homeless people can fall into isolation.
As opposed to a standard housing voucher, subsidies for these units are tied to the project rather than the occupant, meaning that the funding to subsidize the units stays in place if and when someone moves on.
The units are a drop in the bucket of Concord’s overall housing needs, but since they fall directly under the coalition’s purview, they can be directed to those with the greatest need.
Tenants are recommended by the coalition and must be approved by New Hampshire Housing, which helped finance the project. The tenant list is yet to be finalized.
In the meantime, local groups and organizations are sponsoring and furnishing each unit, bringing in the scaffolding for new lives.
In a tour, Mayor Byron Champlin and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who helped secure federal funding for the project through a Congressional earmark, celebrated the large bedrooms, fragrant hardwood floors and historic touches.
Earmarks, called “Congressionally Directed Spending,” can get a bad rap, Shaheen said at a ribbon cutting for the project. “When you hear people raising concerns about it, tell them it funds these kinds of projects.”
The project, Champlin said, is a representation of Concord’s willingness to mobilize behind efforts to reduce homelessness, even as the housing crisis persists and surrounding areas lag behind in affordable housing production.
