On a February afternoon, Rebecca Carlman stood in a parking lot off of Storrs Street and passed out blankets from the trunk of her car to people experiencing homelessness. She’d been there herself a few years prior and decided to give donations to help those who were still sleeping outside.

In April, Larry Reagan walked into his new apartment on Pleasant Street. For three years, he’d lived in a tent nearby after his wife Stephanie passed away. He was one of eight people housed by the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness in their latest permanent supportive housing project.

In July, Robin Bach watched as an encampment in her backyard grew. She wanted the tents cleared, but knew those living there would have nowhere to go under current Concord city ordinances. Police cleared the encampment on a rainy day at the end of the month.

Last month, Michelle Laverdure sat in front of the city of Concord’s public safety advisory board asking for a plan. She had been sleeping in her van and grew tired of having no lawful place to live in the area, just like hundreds of others.

As homelessness rises in New Hampshire – with reports indicating it’s growing faster here than anywhere else in the country – Concord has focused the work of a decade-long committee into five areas. At the same time, people experiencing homelessness, like Laverdure, are calling on the city to present a more immediate solution.

Current estimates reveal that just over 300 people are experiencing homelessness in Merrimack County. With services, like the Resource Center at the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness and the Friendly Kitchen, most of the county population resides in the Concord area.

In 2023, the state experienced a 52 percent increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness statewide – compared to a national increase of 12 percent – according to a report from the Coalition to End Homelessness.

The surge comes from the annual point-in-time count, a coordinated event nationwide, where community members and advocates count every person experiencing homelessness in a single night in January. While advocates say the practice may mean numbers are artificially low, the next count will take place on January 22 and preliminary numbers estimate a 71 percent increase.

For a more complete picture, street outreach workers, like Freeman Toth at Community Action Program Belknap-Merrimack Counties, track who is experiencing homelessness, their needs and backstory. With these details, Toth and others can prioritize applications for people to find housing.

But in the last few years, having a rental assistance voucher has not guaranteed an apartment – 15 to 20 people in the area have consistently had a voucher but no apartment.

To help with housing transitions, Toth would also like to see more funding to help with security deposits and rent for the first month.

“I got people with vouchers that can’t lease up because they don’t have the money,” he said. “They’re literally homeless.”

Karen Emis-Williams, the human services director in Concord, said move-in costs per person can be up to $4,000 and the city can provide financial assistance for those who apply.

Data collection is one of the city’s steering committee’s five priorities – with reducing unsheltered homelessness by 25 percent, securing 100 units of available housing, ending veterans homelessness by the fall and increasing communication about their efforts rounding out their scope.

To tackle the last component – communication – Karen Jantzen, the executive director of the coalition, would like to see the city council engage more. She suggested councilors host ward-level meetings to start a public conversation that is tailored to different parts of the city.

“Maybe what we need to do is to take some community conversations to tell people the progress that we are making across the community,” she said. “Just say, ‘this is what mental health looks like. This is what it’s like if you’re homeless. This is what it’s like if you have to access services.’ It’s hard. It’s not easy. It’s a very difficult task.”

The coalition just completed a strategic planning process, setting goals for the nonprofit through 2028, of which communication is one.

Long term, the coalition would also like to build a new resource center which will be aided by federal funding. U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen secured $2 million for the project.

Federal decisions also lead the charge on municipal responses to homelessness after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that localities enforce sleeping and camping bans in a landmark case, Grants Pass versus Johnson.

Shortly thereafter, the city of Manchester began to enforce a fine of $250 for people camping on city streets and in parks, regardless of shelter capacity.

While no such measure has passed in Concord – and Mayor Byron Champlin asserted that he would not do so after the ruling – shelter space is still limited in the city.

During the winter months, the coalition offers 40 beds each night, while the Salvation Army McKenna House, Family Promise and the Friends Program provide more temporary living.

Still, the patchwork shelter from nonprofits in the area shows one glaring hole to people like Laverdure – the city itself does not provide any shelter for people experiencing homelessness nor a designated place for people to go.

In the new year, the legislature will take up only one bill regarding homelessness, aside from a request to fund support for Waypoint’s young adult shelter. The legislative service request from Heath Howard, a Strafford Democrat, is titled “relative to indemnification for municipalities adopting policies to address homelessness.”

For the most part, decisions on homelessness will be left in municipal hands.

Michaela Towfighi can be reached at mtowfighi@cmonitor.com