The county jail and hospital emergency room have become revolving doors for people experiencing homelessness. The cycle goes as follows: their stay is up, they’re released but then they have nowhere to go. Days later, that same individual ends up right back where they started and it repeats again.

The Concord Coalition to End Homelessness is trying to catch people before the cycle begins. Starting Thursday, a new housing group at the Merrimack County jail will work in tandem with case managers to help inmates return to a stable living situation.

“We will have a better read on what people’s situations are, where are their plans, can we resolve some of those family situations and get someone in?” said Connor Spern, the outreach services coordinator for the coalition. “A lot of the times, we’re just in the dark, but we got a tiny little flashlight in there right now.”

On a day-to-day basis, the coalition works directly to assist the homeless in the Concord area. But their work fits into a larger city response, dictated by a decade-old plan. On Tuesday, the city’s steering committee – the governing body that brings nonprofits, business leaders and faith communities together in a coordinated response to homelessness – began working to update this document.

In 2014 when the city’s plan was first drafted, five goals guided its response – providing healthy and safe environments for people experiencing homelessness; creating additional units to provide permanent affordable rental housing; increasing knowledge about homelessness in Concord and resources available; utilizing public and private funding available for plan strategies; and bringing together a broad range of stakeholders to implement the plan.

Some of the smaller goals were concise and are now complete. The coalition now has an expanded resource center on North Main Street that provides a site for clients to meet with case managers, receive mail and do laundry. The Capitol Area Street Outreach Collaborative is coordinating services among nonprofits in the area and tracking individuals who are experiencing homelessness in a by-name list – which provides individual profiles of needs and circumstances.

But other goals, like increasing the city’s housing stock and public and private funding, still need more effort.

To tackle these goals, the right people need to be at the table, said Rosanne Haggerty, the founder and president of Community Solutions, a national nonprofit that focuses on solving homelessness. 

If the city wants landlords to engage in incentive programs, a landlord’s voice needs to lead this charge within the committee.

The group will consider these suggestions in the new year under new leadership with Haggerty as chair. Mayor-Elect Byron Champlin will step aside from the committee and be replaced by Jim Schlosser, the councilor representing Ward 7. 

Revamping the concrete plan to end homelessness requires a tandem conversation about the committee’s responsibilities. 

The Coalition is about to undergo a strategic planning process, said Karen Jantzen, executive director of the coalition. With that, the steering committee could direct city resources to help implement this plan. 

The group could also help coordinate initiatives like finding landlords to participate in incentive programs, approaching developers about housing opportunities and assisting the coalition in finding another expanded location for a resource center for more immediate solutions. 

“The longer people are out here with no solutions, the harder it is to get them in to engage in your system because it's already failed them for that long,” Spern said. 

Earlier this fall, when encampments in the South End spurred resident complaints, Deputy Police Chief Barrett Moulton, who serves as the department liaison on the committee, found that a community conversation about homelessness was the best way to appease concerns. 

“There’s an opportunity for each community or area of Concord to be more targeted in community meetings,” he said. “I think that more personal approach of actually face to face, seeing some of the people talking about it might be better.” 

These conversations could also have a dual purpose. They would not only foster a better understanding of the city’s response to homelessness, especially at a neighborhood level, but also provide a platform for people who have transitioned into stable housing to find community, said Spern. 

This civic engagement is often a common factor among communities that have eradicated homelessness across the country, said Haggerty. With it, they’re able to engage a comprehensive response across sectors, including city leaders, businesses and the media.  

“This is one of Concord’s greatest strengths,” Haggerty said.