August 19, 2025 • 42 mins
Is there really an issue of homelessness in New Hampshire? Like...everywhere in New Hampshire?
Yes, yes there is. Liz is joined by Erica Diamond and Lauren Bombardier from Families In Transition to talk about homelessness, which is affecting so many of our community members.
Erica and Lauren explain to Liz that homelessness is a result of a lack of affordable housing and a lack of social support systems. Liz identifies one acronym correctly.
This episode pairs well with the episode Where have all the (affordable) houses gone? with Nick Taylor
Are you or someone you know homeless or experiencing a housing crisis?
To learn about available social services within your community, including housing and shelter resources, call 2-1-1 or contact your local city or town welfare office.
New episodes on Tuesdays.
Become a supporter of the show
Have an idea for an upcoming episode? Email Liz: newhampshirehasissues@gmail.com
Links:
- Families in Transition
- Waypoint New Hampshire: Homeless Youth & Young Adult Department
- New Hampshire Coalition to End Homelessness
- National Alliance to End Homelessness
- NH has taken a ‘housing first’ approach to homelessness. A new executive order could change that. (NHPR)
- City prepares to clear, clean longstanding encampments in Healy Park (Concord Monitor)
- Funding for Manchester homeless shelter set to expire next month (WMUR)
- Trump's purge of Washington's homeless encampments escalates (NHPR)
- In Manchester, an urgent call to address NH's rising youth homelessness: ‘See our faces.’ (NHPR)
- NH Homeless Data Hub (NH DHHS)
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New Hampshire Has Issues is generously sponsored by Seacoast Soils, an organic compost and topsoil provider for New Hampshire, Maine, and Northeast Massachusetts. Visit their website at www.seacoastsoil.com!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Liz Canada (00:00):
What would the state need to do to make that happen
in New Hampshire?
Erica Diamond (00:04):
Yeah, so you would need a physical space.
You'd also, again, need thefunding to do so.
But I think it's also acoordination piece.
The biggest F word
Liz Canada (00:12):
on this podcast.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Erica Diamond (00:18):
Yeah.
Liz Canada (00:27):
Welcome to New Hampshire Has Issues, the
podcast that dares to ask, ishomelessness a problem in New
Hampshire?
All right, you want to hit it?
Erica or Lauren, who's going totake it?
I'm
Lauren Bombardier (00:39):
going to
Liz Canada (00:39):
let Erica do it.
Erica Diamond (00:40):
Yes, Erica, let's hear it.
Welcome to New Hampshire HasIssues, where we dare to ask,
how do we love our communitybetter?
Liz Canada (00:46):
Ugh.
It's just so good.
See, I love this about guestsbecause I go in and I'm like,
I'm going to be a pain in thebum.
And then the guest is like, I'mgoing to say this beautiful
tagline that is the best thingever.
And I think it is a questionthat is applicable for every
episode, but especially this onewhere, you know, maybe in a lot
(01:08):
of folks' minds, folks who areunhoused, people feel like
they're not part of thecommunity for some reason, when
in fact, they're as much ourcommunity members as anyone else
who's here.
So That's an excellent taglineand tragically accurate as well.
So I am your host, Liz Canada,and joining me today are two
people.
I've never actually had twoguests on the podcast yet.
(01:30):
You are my like initiation intomulti guest podcasting.
Hope it goes okay.
We love to be the first.
Yes, the pioneers first in thenation first on the podcast,
something like that.
So my guests today are twofolks from families in
transition, Eric Erica Diamondand Lauren Bombardier.
(01:50):
Welcome to the show, Erica andLauren.
Thank you for being here.
Erica Diamond (01:54):
Thank you for having us.
Liz Canada (01:56):
Of course.
I am so excited that you arehere because quite a few
episodes ago, I had Nick Tayloron to talk about housing,
affordable housing, housingaffordability, and we just
barely touched on the topic ofhomelessness and unhoused folks.
And a few listeners reached outto me and they're like, you
need to get Erica Diamond andLauren Bombardier you're on this
(02:18):
show now.
Here you are.
Thank you for being the expertsto come talk to me because I've
learned a lot in my time onthis earth, but I'm always
learning more and I'm hoping youcan help me better understand
what's going on in NewHampshire.
What is families in transition?
What do you all do on aday-to-day basis at your
organization?
Because I think it'll helpfolks to know What does your
(02:41):
organization do?
Lauren Bombardier (02:43):
So families in transition, right?
Our mission is to prevent andbreak the cycle of homelessness.
And we do that in a fewdifferent ways, right?
We're not for profit and we arelocated in Manchester and we
provide housing services.
We have a couple of buildingsin Concord as well, but to
prevent and break the cycle ofhomelessness, we do it in a few
different ways.
So we have affordable housing.
(03:05):
I think first and foremost, Ithink we would all agree in our
organization that homelessnessis affordable housing issue so
we have 240 units of affordablehousing you know you just had on
nick taylor and he talked abouthousing really eloquently so
smart we have affordable housingtransitional housing and
permanent supportive housing wehave three types of housing
(03:26):
along with housing we haveshelter shelter does not end
homelessness you are still Sosheltered,
Liz Canada (03:36):
meaning you're at an individual's at an emergency
shelter or is in like a motel,like has received some sort of
support in staying at a hotel ormotel.
Are both of those consideredsheltered or is it specifically
like at an emergency shelter?
Unknown (03:53):
Yeah.
Erica Diamond (03:54):
Those are both considered sheltered as well as
transitional housing, which is aform of housing where you stay
in that housing for up to twoyears.
Oh, okay.
And then are expected to, withsupport, with case management,
move on into a more permanenthousing situation.
Liz Canada (04:13):
Right.
So when I had students, Iworked out in Denver, I was a
high school teacher.
I had students who were withtheir parents going from hotel
to hotel Bopping into grandma'shouse, staying on the couch in
the living room for a few days,and then bopping around.
That family would be sheltered.
Well,
Erica Diamond (04:32):
there is a distinction.
Liz Canada (04:33):
Here's the issue.
Lauren Bombardier (04:35):
When they're doubled up, they're not
sheltered.
They're not counted.
Erica Diamond (04:38):
So if you're staying on a friend's couch, if
you're staying in a sparebedroom of your parents' home,
that is not consideredhomelessness under the HUD
definition.
So when we're talking abouthomelessness, we're generally
using the terms as defined bythe Housing and Urban
Development.
Liz Canada (04:57):
Yeah.
Okay.
This is so helpful.
Lauren, I'm sorry to haveinterrupted you.
No worries.
Interrupt, right?
This is great.
This is really
Lauren Bombardier (05:03):
great.
And I talk fast, so tell me toslow
Liz Canada (05:05):
down too.
I talk fast too.
I'm from New Jersey.
Let's just keep going.
Lauren Bombardier (05:09):
Thank you.
We have the adult shelter,which has 138 beds.
We have a family shelter, whichhas 46 beds and 11 units.
We also have a food pantry, asubstance use program.
Our adult shelter is thelargest in the state.
We're seen as a place that lotsof individuals throughout the
state come to as a place thatthey can receive shelter.
Liz Canada (05:30):
And
Lauren Bombardier (05:31):
then one of the things that I think, For our
organization specifically, isthat being a hand up and not a
handout, and that's through casemanagement services.
So we have case managementthroughout our housing program.
It's not easy to move into ahousing unit when you are
homeless, right?
It takes time to get used tobeing housed.
(05:51):
Like our case management teamworks to keep individuals
housed, right?
Working with them was...
buying furniture, how do theyfunction in a home, cleaning
their home.
It's hard to live in a housewhen you've been in a shelter or
in a place that's uninhabitablefor a human being.
So you have to learn how tolive in a home.
Liz Canada (06:10):
So I like to start every episode with a simple
question.
Is homelessness actually anissue in New Hampshire?
Erica Diamond (06:19):
Yes.
Unknown (06:22):
Yes.
Liz Canada (06:22):
A big one.
Period.
Yes, period.
A big one indeed.
Okay, so tell me more, becauseI think a lot of folks might
assume New Hampshire, big,beautiful, rural, granite state,
and might not associatehomelessness with the state.
So it's an issue, but how bigof an issue?
Lauren, you said a big one.
How big of an issue is it herein New Hampshire?
Erica Diamond (06:44):
I'd say it's big, and it can and likely will
become bigger.
Oh.
And...
It's almost a little bit of aloaded question to answer how
big, because there's sort of twodifferent metrics through which
we measure homelessness and therates of homelessness and how
many people are homeless.
Liz Canada (07:06):
I have no idea.
So like, how do you know howmany folks are homeless in New
Hampshire?
How does an organization knowthat?
Erica Diamond (07:12):
Yeah, so there's basically two ways that we track
homelessness.
The first one is called thepoint in time count or the pit
count for short.
We really love our acronyms inthis
Liz Canada (07:24):
line of work.
Everyone loves an acronym.
Every line of work has theirown fancy acronym.
I'll go with it.
Point in time count.
P-I-T.
Erica Diamond (07:34):
Got it.
Our pit count.
So the pit count is somethingthat happens every single year
and it happens across the entirecountry.
Oh.
Every community of the country.
Liz Canada (07:43):
Oh, wow.
Okay.
Erica Diamond (07:44):
So- You may not know, the country's broken up
into these things calledcontinuums of care.
Liz Canada (07:50):
Okay, I thought you were going to say the country
was broken up into states.
And I was like, Erica, I knowthat much.
There are 50 of them.
Quiz me, Erica.
I know.
Okay, so it's broken up intocontinuums of care.
That I don't know.
So what does that mean?
Erica Diamond (08:04):
So another acronym, COCs.
Yes, great.
So basically what a continuumof care is, is it's both a
geographic region, usually drawnalong county or municipal
lines.
Liz Canada (08:16):
Okay.
Erica Diamond (08:16):
But it's also a collaborative collection of
human beings and organizationswithin a community that in some
way or form touch homelessness.
So that can be providers likeus, like Families in Transition,
that's providing directservices or housing, but it can
also be healthcare providers.
It can be faith-basedorganizations, government
agencies, or even just concernedcitizens.
(08:39):
It really can be anyone thatmakes up this continuum,
wraparound continuum of care.
I'd say there's about 400 inthe country Each state has
varying amounts of COCs.
New Hampshire has three.
We have Manchester COC, whichis our city where FIT is
located.
We have the Nashua COC, whichis sort of the southern bit of
(09:03):
New Hampshire.
And then we have the balance ofstate, which is everything
else.
Liz Canada (09:08):
Everything else.
Manchester, Nashua.
Erica Diamond (09:12):
Everybody else.
Everything else from Portsmouthto North Country is bound
state.
But I bring up those three COCsbecause it's through those COCs
that we are tracking andcounting homelessness.
Kind of returning to the pitcount, every year across the
country, every COC, whicheffectively covers the entire
geography of the United States,has a count, both a sheltered
(09:36):
count and an unsheltered countof people who are experiencing
homelessness.
It happens every on the sametime on January 22nd.
And it usually happens atnight, somewhere between
midnight and about 6 a.m.
Because we are trying to countboth people who are sheltered in
an emergency shelter,transitional housing, a safe
(09:59):
haven.
And we're also trying to countthe unsheltered.
So those are people who areoutside in the street, who may
be in their car, who may be in aplace unfit for habitability.
And so we are sending basicallyvolunteer teams out in the that
down or ideally we're speakingto these people and we are
(10:21):
getting their informationgetting demographic information
and that's how we counthomelessness in the country so
Liz Canada (10:30):
the same day across the country it is the same and
it's in the winter which for usin the northern part of the
country is extremely significanton January 22nd it probably
feels very different than MiamiJanuary 22nd I'm making
assumptions based on thegeography of our country, but
it's probably a differentexperience to be outside
(10:50):
unsheltered in New Hampshireversus in Florida.
That's really interesting.
Erica Diamond (10:55):
You kind of hit the nail on the head with one of
the potential issues with usingthe pit count is particularly
in states like ours where it'svery cold.
People in the coldest months ofthe year tend to hide
themselves away or find placesthat are warmer to go that if
you have a team of volunteersthat's kind of walking in a grid
pattern around the street, wemay not see everyone and they
(11:16):
may not be counted.
And so that's, you know,therein lies the question, are
we even getting an accuratepicture of how many people are
homeless?
So we use a second metric aswell with the pick count.
And so we use the HomelessManagement Information System,
or HMIS.
Liz Canada (11:33):
I'm going to keep track of all these.
These are all going to make
Erica Diamond (11:36):
it.
We'll have to make a littlecheat sheet later.
That's right.
So every COC uses an HMISmanagement system, and at any
point of contact, so it Ifsomeone's accessing a shelter or
services or housing fromhomelessness, they will be
entered with their consent intothis program.
(11:57):
database, this HMIS.
And it's through that databasethat we're able to track over
the course of a year or longersomeone's experience or sort of
journey through the system.
And so in some ways, the HMISdata is a bit more accurate
because it's looking at anentire year as opposed to a
(12:18):
single data point on the coldestnight of the year.
Liz Canada (12:22):
Right.
And so Organizations like yourswould then put that information
in at any point in the year ifsomeone has come in and you're
aware that they are experiencinghomelessness.
That would be part of that sortof longer-term annual review on
top of and in addition to theJanuary 22nd count.
Erica Diamond (12:43):
Yes, and I would note that this is a required
thing that people have to do forcertain types of funding.
However, not every agencythat's serving homelessness
enters data into the system.
So even the HMIS system can beflawed.
Right.
Kind of returning to youroriginal question, how big is
(13:05):
the issue of homelessness?
The truth is it's hard to tell,but using the data points that
we do have, we say that it's bigbecause in 2023, we had a 52%
increase in homelessness.
Liz Canada (13:18):
In New Hampshire alone?
Erica Diamond (13:19):
In New Hampshire alone.
Liz Canada (13:20):
Wow.
Erica Diamond (13:21):
We were first in the nation, number one for the
highest rate increase inhomelessness.
Really?
In 2023.
Liz Canada (13:29):
Wow.
Wow.
Why?
Why did that happen?
That's probably an even morecomplex question, but that's my
immediate question is like, whydid it increase so much?
Erica Diamond (13:41):
So it's a combination of things.
There's a lot of differentthings that go into
homelessness.
And to be fair, for the record,it did decrease by 8% in 2024.
Liz Canada (13:53):
But that was still a big, a big jump in 2023.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah,
Erica Diamond (13:57):
we went from...
1,474 people in 2022 to 2,441people in 2023.
Holy smokes.
According to the PIT count.
And if you go to the HMIScount, it's over 6,000 people.
According to HMIS, we have6,806 unhoused individuals,
(14:18):
which is higher than thepopulation of 80% of New
Hampshire communities.
Liz Canada (14:23):
Holy smokes.
That is...
Okay, so when I asked you howbig of an issue and you said
big...
That's what we mean.
Really, really big issue.
Holy smokes.
What leads to folks becominghomeless?
How does that happen?
And I'll just give a quickcaveat to say, I said this to
Nick too and he made fun of me alittle bit, but I'm on our
town's budget recommendationscommittee, right?
(14:45):
And the subcommittee that I'mon is the, one of them is the
welfare office.
And I have learned so muchabout how our town supports
folks to make sure that they canstay in their homes because if
they lose their homes forwhatever reason and have to go
to a shelter or have to go to ahotel, Like that adds so many
more complexities to them beingable to get back into housing.
(15:07):
So like there are offices inour towns that are there to
support folks as well, inaddition to organization.
So I've just, it has beenreally eye opening to hear about
those types of stories of folkstrying to keep them in their
homes and support them therebecause so many challenges occur
once that housing is gone orlost for whatever reason.
(15:28):
So that is a long way for me toask the question, what leads to
housing?
to someone being homeless inNew Hampshire, being unhoused.
Erica Diamond (15:36):
So we have a simple answer and then we have a
more complicated answer.
Let's just say simple and justcut it.
No.
So the short answer is thathomelessness results from a lack
of affordable housing.
Liz Canada (15:50):
Yeah.
And...
Boy, are we lacking it in NewHampshire.
If I've learned anything onthat episode with Nick, we
really do not have any.
We don't have very much, Ishould say.
Erica Diamond (15:57):
0.6% vacancy rate.
It's wild.
Very
Lauren Bombardier (16:01):
small.
Eric and I both have so manystories, right, that we have
heard.
I hear a lot...
Oh, wow.
Or they've been evicted fromtheir apartment, which we hear
(16:28):
more about lately aboutdevelopers are selling and
buying apartments.
And then they're out of rent.
Rent can't go up $2,000,$1,000.
They can't swing that a month.
Eric, I know you have aplethora of stories too.
Yeah.
Erica Diamond (16:42):
And I'll just add, you know, when we're
talking about the aging orelderly population, generally
what we mean is people who are65 and older.
And that's definitely the...
most rapidly increasingpopulation in homelessness.
About one in five people whoexperience homelessness are in
that 65 and up category, andit's only increasing, especially
(17:05):
in a state where we have someof the oldest people in the
country.
Liz Canada (17:09):
One in five?
Yeah.
Yes.
And that's just, you're justtalking about New Hampshire.
You're not talking about thewhole country.
So
Erica Diamond (17:18):
that's actually for the whole country.
Oh, that's the whole country.
Yeah, but it's the same trend.
But still, still shocking.
Yeah.
It's closer to one in four inNew Hampshire.
Okay, so worse is what you'resaying, Erica.
Are over 65, yes.
So
Lauren Bombardier (17:32):
Liz, if you came for a tour of our adult
shelter, we talk about it oftenis that the population of our
adult shelter is aging, right?
And a couple of years ago, itwas 45 was the average age.
Now it's 47.
I mean, that doesn't seem likea big jump, but that's
significant when you walkthrough the adult shelter and
you see people who are elderlythere.
You know, they're living outtheir later years in life at the
adult shelter, and that's not aplace for them to be.
Liz Canada (17:55):
My mind is boggled right now.
You know, yes, we are an agingstate.
And of course, logically, Iguess, like if we are an aging
state, then therefore also thefolks who are experiencing
homelessness are also of anaging demographic.
But I'm just going to behonest, it hadn't occurred to
(18:15):
me.
Like, that's really, reallywild.
Erica Diamond (18:17):
Yeah, and I mean, I think part of it is, you
know...
people who are older tend to beon a more fixed income.
As the rental rates areincreasing year over year, but
the amount that they're gettingon a fixed income is not keeping
pace with that.
We're seeing more and moreelderly folks winding up in
homelessness or in kind ofunstable housing situations.
(18:39):
We also see that as familiesare struggling more now with
their finances or being able tokeep themselves stable, it's
more difficult for them to maybetake in Right.
Right.
Lauren Bombardier (19:14):
They're waking up, they're going to
work, but they have medicalbills, life is expensive, and
there's no affordable housing.
Liz Canada (19:21):
So there's the question of how does someone
become homeless, which is lackof affordable housing.
Erica Diamond (19:26):
And I'd say lack of affordable housing paired
with a lack of social supportsystems.
So you can't really have onewithout the other.
It doesn't suffice to simplyput someone into a home and then
say, great, you're no longerhomeless.
High
Liz Canada (19:40):
five.
Here's your key.
Off
Erica Diamond (19:42):
you go.
I think that's where the ideaof...
know how do we as a communitycreate that safety net or that
that support system to reallykeep people housed so it's
really like a two-part system ofwe need more housing but we
also need to make sure thatwe're putting in the supports in
place to help people maintainthat housing and i mean i think
(20:04):
again talking about the elderlyor talking about you know
someone who may need um likehealth care or who's working you
know like we are seeing cuts tomedicaid for example and so
when you're losing that support,if you're cutting Medicaid and
there's 46,000 granite staterswho are going to be affected by
this big Medicaid cut from thebig beautiful bill.
But there's a trickle downeffect, right, of that.
Liz Canada (20:29):
Not the trickle down effect they want to happen from
this bill, but the trickle downof negative impacts on everyday
folks.
Erica Diamond (20:36):
Yeah.
But yeah, I mean, I think thatthat's an example of a social
support system that's being cutor defunded and then taking that
away doesn't help peoplemaintain housing.
Right.
And that's why we need supportslike child care, employment
help, veterans affairs.
If someone's a veteran, that isactually the one thing that we
do right in New Hampshire ishelping our homeless veterans.
(20:59):
Okay.
Another first in the nation.
Okay.
We are actually in that same2023 report where we were 52%
homeless up in our homelessnessrate, we actually were the best
of any state in reducing therate of homelessness in veterans
(21:20):
specifically.
Liz Canada (21:21):
Wow.
Okay, we'll take that stat.
That's a positive stat.
Erica Diamond (21:25):
That's good to hear.
And it's because we put fundinginto it.
We put a lot more funding intoit.
Liz Canada (21:30):
Well, well, well.
Have we hit maybe a thing thatcould solve some of these issues
is maybe funding.
Erica Diamond (21:38):
And I'd also say there's more of a...
How do I put it?
There's more of a socialacceptance for veterans and then
wanting to help veterans whoare experiencing homelessness as
opposed to some of the otherdemographics that we see.
We talked about elderly, butyou know, Another big
demographic that we're seeingrising is children, so youth 25
(22:01):
and under.
There's a very large increasein youth homelessness, and
particularly in the LGBTQcommunity.
They're very overrepresented inthe homelessness population.
About 40% of youth who arehomeless identify as LGBTQ+.
That is a national statistic,but we're seeing very similar
(22:23):
parallels in the New Hampshiredata as well.
Liz Canada (22:26):
Some of that, I imagine, is likely because they
have been rejected from theirhomes by family members or
whomever and now are outside ofthe home that they have been in
for so long.
That's really horrifying.
Erica Diamond (22:40):
It's horrifying.
It's terrible.
And I think that it's also agood point of comparison where
you see, you know, A child mayidentify one way or another, may
not be getting the same kind ofsupports as maybe a veteran as
far as like funding or thesocial supports that are
(23:01):
available to them.
Liz Canada (23:02):
Yeah.
That's scary.
It's scary to think about thatsome folks, at least in how
actions happen, how funding goesout, to think that some folks
who are homeless are maybehigher priorities, higher
targets for supporting themversus others.
That's lots of process there.
Erica Diamond (23:22):
I think it's partly built into the common
misconceptions abouthomelessness and what do people
think of when they think ofsomeone who's experiencing
homelessness.
And it's not always just themiddle-aged man on the street
corner.
It's your grandmother.
It's a child.
It's...
Liz Canada (23:40):
a mother.
Yeah, what are themisconceptions?
Because I think that's a reallygood one to dig into.
What have you found when youtalk to folks?
Lauren Bombardier (23:48):
I mean, I think that what we see all the
time is what Erica just said,like everyone thinks it's a
middle-aged man on the corner,right?
Panhandling, asking for money,someone who is scary or dirty.
When we provide tours of ourprogramming, I would say that's
not how people feel at all,right?
Everyone in the shelter, wehave an adult shelter, right?
Right.
(24:09):
Yeah.
unclean person it's that's notwhat we see for homelessness um
(24:33):
we're seeing a lot of peoplelike people who are working who
are one paycheck away right alot of americans are one
paycheck away from beinghomeless right yeah their
families their individuals butwith the price of life and and
housing housing
Liz Canada (24:48):
right sometimes it's impossible transportation like
this is not a state that isreally walkable there's a lot of
places you can walk to yepchild care all of those things
are expensive yeah
Erica Diamond (24:59):
The main misconception, I think, is that
just it's not what you see inthe media.
It's not what you immediatelythink of.
I think another misconception Iwould add is that it's not easy
to get I think that there'ssometimes this idea of like, why
don't you just get anapartment?
Why don't you just get a job?
Why don't you just?
And there's so many barriers,even if you've accessed the
(25:21):
right resources, even if youhave help that can prevent you
from actually getting to thatpoint of being housed.
So there's eligibilityrequirements.
So there may be certain unitsor certain apartment buildings
that you qualify for or don'tbased on your family size, based
on your income, sometimes basedon like disability.
Yeah.
(25:41):
It all compounds that even ifyou're at that precipice of
being housed, you can still behit with a wall or a barrier
that's preventing you fromgetting those keys.
So I think that that's anothermisconception that it's not,
though I wish it were, it's notas simple even as just getting a
house or finding an apartment.
(26:01):
There's a lot of steps thatlead up to getting into that
home.
And I think that that's, again,where that case management
support network, those socialservices really play a big role
is helping helping guide peoplethrough those often very
complicated barriers.
Lauren Bombardier (26:18):
Erica, I think that's a really good point
because when we have a unitthat opens up, the next person
on the list just can't move in.
The units are specific to
Erica Diamond (26:27):
funding types, to contracts on the building.
Oh.
It's not as simple as we have avacancy, let's put someone
right in.
Lauren Bombardier (26:36):
And I don't have the number off the top of
my head, Erica.
Do you know what our wait listis for our housing?
Erica Diamond (26:41):
The last time I checked, which was a couple
weeks ago, it was sitting aroundlike 400 people.
Lauren Bombardier (26:47):
On our wait list for our
Erica Diamond (26:48):
housing.
We get about 100 calls a weekinto our intake department of
people looking for housing.
And at our family shelter, it'sabout 25 families right now who
are on the wait list.
Lauren Bombardier (27:02):
And those are families that are in
uninhabitable locations,
Erica Diamond (27:05):
right?
They're living in their car.
They're living in an abandonedbuilding.
They're living on the side ofthe road.
Lauren Bombardier (27:10):
Our intake coordinator spends about 45
minutes on the phone to makesure to work on diversion and
prevention measures, which couldlead to they could be doubled
up.
Like that's a better place forthem to be with a friend or a
family member.
Erica Diamond (27:22):
When we have a point of contact, we always try
to do that prevention anddiversion work because
prevention and diversion isactually the best way to combat
homelessness.
If someone does not fall intothat homeless cycle in the first
place.
That's really, you know, that'sthe part of our mission, the
preventing the cycle in thefirst place, that prevention
diversion.
But if that's not successful,we do an assessment through
(27:44):
coordinated entry to sort offigure out how vulnerable
someone is.
There's sort of a scoringcomponent using a lot of
different factors.
You know, do you have children?
Are you fleeing an imminentdangerous situation potentially
domestic violence to assess youknow who's the most vulnerable
and that's how the wait list isdetermined so we're trying to
(28:07):
pull the people who are most inimmediate need first to get them
into housing across ourcontinuum of care and sometimes
statewide.
So our continuums of careorganize and work together.
So if someone comes intoManchester and a different
continuum of care has a spotavailable for them, we try to
coordinate when we can, if theperson's up to moving somewhere
(28:31):
else.
We're constantly talkingbecause we're trying not to stay
in our little silo of, this isjust Manchester.
This is just a Nashua problem.
It's really a statewideproblem.
And we're really working tofigure out what can we do as a
state as the wider community toaddress this and to help each
other.
Liz Canada (28:49):
How many shelters and beds are available across
the state?
Erica Diamond (28:54):
So it's a complicated question.
Liz Canada (28:55):
Okay.
I didn't think that one was socomplicated.
So that's interesting to hearthat that's a complicated
question.
Yeah.
Erica Diamond (29:00):
Unfortunately, I can't give you just an easy
number because there's nocentralized list or resource
that tells you where all theshelters are in the state.
On purpose?
You think there would be,there's not.
And I can explain why.
It's because shelters come inall forms and sizes.
And so when we're talking aboutshelter, what are we talking
(29:24):
about?
Because you have emergencyshelters, like the ones that
Families in Transition runs,where there's sort of like
your...
typical vision of a shelter,but we also have smaller
shelters that may still beemergency shelter, but may not
be serving 138 individuals.
You have a lot of faith-basedorganizations doing this work,
(29:45):
smaller nonprofits, wherethey're definitely doing
emergency sheltering, but theymay be housing one family, two
people.
It may be a church with a sparebedroom in the back.
They may not be entering intothat homeless management
information system, so we're nottracking it we don't know the
work that's happening you alsohave like domestic violence
shelters certain youth shelterswhich operate with discretion
(30:09):
and tend to be a bit moresecretive intentionally about
what they're doing and then youhave things like winter warming
shelters which are temporarycrop up shelters specifically
for the winter time to keeppeople warm so that they do not
freeze to death so all of thosethings are considered shelters
but it can be difficult to givea number because how many winter
(30:32):
warming shelters are going tocrop up this winter?
How many churches or synagoguesor mosques are providing
shelter for people but aren'tnecessarily reporting it to
these bigger databases?
Lauren Bombardier (30:43):
But I think it's important to note that we
can say that we do know that 13shelters are funded by the state
grant and aid funding throughthe state of New Hampshire.
I'm sorry, through DHHS eachyear.
Liz Canada (30:57):
Department of Health and Human Services in New
Hampshire.
Lauren Bombardier (31:00):
Oh, I'm sorry.
That was Department of Healthand Human Services.
Liz Canada (31:04):
It's like I'm being quizzed.
I'm like, okay, I know thatone.
Department of Health and HumanServices.
Okay, so there's 13 thatreceive funding through DHHS.
Erica Diamond (31:13):
Yeah, so the state does provide funding for
emergency shelters.
This past year, actually,Senator Birdsell...
Shout out to her that shepushed through level funding for
emergency shelters.
Liz Canada (31:27):
Was that part of the state budget?
It's
Erica Diamond (31:29):
part of the state budget.
Okay.
Yep.
So 2023, we received $8 per bedper day for sheltering.
In 2024, we got $20 per bed perday, so there was an increase.
And then there was also anemergency funding bill that went
through that provided an extra$7.32.
So as of 2024, we werereceiving $27 roughly per bed
(31:54):
per day that we were providing.
And then through this mostrecent budget cycle, the funding
is coming through again at $27per bed.
Okay.
To put that into perspective,for families in transition, it
costs about $45 per bed per dayto operate the shelter.
Yep.
Though we have partners who sayour operating cost is closer to
(32:14):
$75 per bed per day or $100 perbed per day.
In any case, the funding, we'redefinitely grateful for it, but
it's not enough to rely solelyon that one source of state
funding.
Right.
But yeah, so there are 13shelters across the state that
are receiving that funding butthere are definitely many, many
more shelters that are doing thework but are not able to rely
(32:37):
on the state for that work.
Liz Canada (32:39):
Maybe this is a bias or an assumption that I am
making, but I feel like a lot offolks when they think about
homelessness they might thinkabout tents or encampments or
things like that and then feelthat homelessness is not an
issue in their community if thatisn't happening and so if
somebody comes through andclears out tents it's like oh
thank goodness now the problemis solved and I think that just
(33:01):
means those folks are not nolonger physically visibly
present that hasn't solvedactually anything but what
happens when folks are clearedout of a space like that They're
cleared
Lauren Bombardier (33:14):
out from the space.
Erica Diamond (33:17):
Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head that
when an encampment is moved orpeople are cleared out, it's not
solving homelessness.
It's merely making it lessvisible.
That's, again, maybe amisconception about homelessness
that, oh, if we're not seeingit, it's not happening.
It's
Liz Canada (33:35):
not here.
Like, if I don't see it in mytown, then we don't have
homeless folks in my town.
That's
Erica Diamond (33:40):
just not true.
Right.
It's something that you oftensee when comparing cities versus
rural spaces.
We think, oh, homelessness isworse in cities.
And I mean, there's some truthto that.
The data shows there tend tobe...
There's more people.
It's like by density, there'sjust more people.
But it's also because there'smore resources in cities and
(34:04):
because rural homelessness oftenlooks a bit...
different.
It's someone staying in a shed.
It's someone staying deep inthe woods.
And again, if you're doingsomething like the pit count
where you're just trying to makea grid of volunteers, I mean,
there's no way to actuallyaccount for how many people are
up in the North country, whoknows where.
The issue of clearing outencampments does not solve
(34:25):
homelessness.
And actually, it's just makingit harder to see.
And also what it does is ifyou're pushing people out,
whether it's with strictordinances or fines or things
like that, people are becomingmore transient.
Instead of staying in one placefor a long time, they're moving
every few days.
They're moving in the middle ofthe night.
(34:47):
They're having to finddifferent places to go so that
they're not swept up.
And one of the consequences ofthat is that outreach workers
have a more difficult time ofreconnecting with folks that
they're building a relationshipwith.
So you may have plan to meet upwith Joe to help him get
(35:08):
employment, help him get aphone, help him get medication,
whatever it may be that heneeds.
And you make a plan, hey, we'llmeet back here tomorrow.
But if Joe has to move in themiddle of the night or his
tent's swept up, you may not beable to find him again, or it
may be a long time before youare.
And so we're losing connectionswith people that we're trying
(35:29):
to help because of ordinanceslike that.
Unknown (35:33):
Yeah.
Erica Diamond (35:33):
What are
Liz Canada (35:33):
the answers?
What can happen?
What can cities and towns do?
What can the state do?
I heard you give a shout out toSenator Birdsell for making
sure that the funding was thesame from before and that it's
still not enough, but thatthere's something to that of it
at least being the same,especially with this recent
(35:55):
state budget where a lot ofservices were cut.
What's the answer, Erica andLauren?
Tell me what needs to happen.
I
Erica Diamond (36:01):
think it's a few different things.
I think the first piece istalking about what can we do at
a city level and then what canwe do at a state or even
potentially a federal level.
City levels, I think it's aboutgetting more involved with your
community.
I think in a city or townsetting, you have...
the ability to create moreimpact that may be joining a
(36:25):
zoning board.
Liz Canada (36:26):
We're back to zoning boards, baby.
You all thought it was over,listener, but we are so bad.
Can't get away from it.
But it's true, right?
Like that sort of local levelto better understand, like what
are we dealing with here withbeing able to have housing in
our community?
Erica Diamond (36:43):
Yeah, it's going to a general assembly meeting
for your continuum of care.
Every continuum of care,usually every month or every
other month is havingcommunity-wide meetings.
You can find them on theCommunity of Care websites.
Go to one.
It's very enlightening.
We have people who areexperiencing homelessness.
We have agencies providingservices.
(37:04):
We have firefighters.
We have policemen.
We have everyone who's involvedin some way with these services
showing up to these GeneralAssembly meetings and talking
about what can we do.
I think at a state level, it'sa little bit different because I
think a lot of the onus ofaddressing homelessness
statutorily falls on cities andtowns.
(37:26):
Yeah.
Lauren Bombardier (37:27):
Yeah,
Erica Diamond (37:28):
they do.
The RSA 165.1 requires thatcities and towns take the brunt
of addressing homelessness andjust poverty in general.
We're required to support ourpoor and help people survive.
maintain housing at a citylevel.
But state level, one of thethings that is talked a lot
about in our circles that wewould love to see in the near
(37:51):
future is medical respite.
Liz Canada (37:54):
What
Erica Diamond (37:54):
does that mean?
Medical respite is effectivelya stepping stone between a
hospital stay and returning tohomelessness.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, so if you are someonewho's experiencing homelessness
or you don't necessarily have aplace to go and you go to the
hospital as everyone at somepoint in their lives will
(38:15):
probably do.
Hospitals cannot legallydischarge you back to the
street.
So oftentimes what's happeningis hospitals are discharging
people to shelters or they'redischarging them back to the
street and just kind of notreporting it.
So What happens with that istypically you would have some
kind of program called medicalrespite where it's a place to
(38:36):
send people so that they canrecover.
So if we're sending people toshelters directly after
hospitalization, you'repotentially putting them into a
crowded congregate living space.
You're potentially putting theminto a place where there's bunk
beds.
And if you just got a kneesurgery, how are you getting to
the top bunk bed?
You know, that kind of thing.
And the shelter staff may notbe prepared to address the need.
(38:57):
specific needs of your healthissue.
Like the healthcare
Liz Canada (39:01):
follow-up that might be needed for someone for all
sorts of issues that led you toa hospital in the first place,
right?
Erica Diamond (39:09):
Right.
So you may not have that.
And alternatively, if thehospital says, you know, we're
not going to send you back to ashelter, we're not going to put
you on the street, then thatmeans we're keeping you in this
hospital bed, which thentranslates to you are
accruing...
More medical expenses that youmaybe can't pay for.
And we're also kind of holdinga bed that someone who may...
(39:31):
now have an emergency, can'tuse.
So it's really kind ofsomething that affects everyone.
It's not just a homelessnessissue.
It's not just a hospital issue.
It's a, again, community-wideissue.
And every other state in NewEngland has a medical respite
program.
New Hampshire's the only onethat does not.
Liz Canada (39:51):
One of my least favorite start of a sentence or
end of a sentence is, NewHampshire is the only state that
does not.
Erica Diamond (39:57):
If someone's coming out of the hospital,
potentially going intohomelessness from the hospital
like they are.
Yeah.
having one of the worst momentsof their life.
And it's important to note thatonce you're in the medical
respite, not only are youreceiving the medical care from
qualified professionals, buttypically that's another point
of contact where you can havethings like case management and
supportive services that arehelping you line up a place to
(40:20):
go once you're released.
So that it's not just we're inmedical respite and then we wind
up in homelessness.
It's not a delay.
It's actually giving you thattime to set something up while
you're able to recover from it.
outside of the hospital.
Liz Canada (40:35):
A stepping stone, which I think you said earlier,
like the idea of it's atransition that leads into
housing, leads into safety and aplace to be long-term.
Wowee, wow.
We're the only state in NewEngland.
Okay.
Erica Diamond (40:51):
It is something that a lot of providers in our
field have been vocal about,have advocated for.
It is not something that's cometo fruition yet.
Liz Canada (41:03):
Okay.
Erica Diamond (41:04):
And I think that that sort of leads into another
sort of final suggestion, likewhat can you do at a city or
state level, or even a federallevel, is vote.
Please vote.
Liz Canada (41:17):
Hi, everyone.
Voting is a great thing.
It's great for you and me, forfolks to vote.
Erica Diamond (41:24):
Yep, yep.
Vote and...
call your representatives.
The National Alliance to EndHomelessness actually has a lot
of good resources on theirwebsite.
They have resources that youcan take templates where you can
just send your concerns to yoursenators, to your
representatives.
Liz Canada (41:39):
Those are all excellent next steps for people.
You have given us homework.
You've given me homework,Lauren and Erica, both of you.
We can do better in NewHampshire, it sounds like.
You guys are great.
It's incredible.
You're doing incredible work.
Thank you for all the thingsthat you're doing.
Erica Diamond (41:55):
I think you're doing great work too.
I mean, just providing aplatform where we or other
people can come and talk aboutthese things that we're seeing,
that we're deeply entrenched inour line of work, that people
just understand what's happeningin their community.
Liz Canada (42:09):
Thank you for helping inform me and probably
other people as well who listen.
So thank you both very much foryour time.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you, Liz.
Erica Diamond (42:17):
Thank you.
Liz Canada (42:17):
This was fun.
I
Erica Diamond (42:19):
feel good.
Yeah, I think it was great.
Liz Canada (42:21):
Amazing.
I might need to have you bothback on because we might need to
do a follow-up.
Erica Diamond (42:38):
We will happily jump on.
We'll love a follow-up.
Liz Canada (42:43):
This is horrifying.
I'm horrified.
What would the state need to do to make that happen
in New Hampshire?
Erica Diamond (00:04):
Yeah, so you would need a physical space.
You'd also, again, need thefunding to do so.
But I think it's also acoordination piece.
The biggest F word
Liz Canada (00:12):
on this podcast.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Erica Diamond (00:18):
Yeah.
Liz Canada (00:27):
Welcome to New Hampshire Has Issues, the
podcast that dares to ask, ishomelessness a problem in New
Hampshire?
All right, you want to hit it?
Erica or Lauren, who's going totake it?
I'm
Lauren Bombardier (00:39):
going to
Liz Canada (00:39):
let Erica do it.
Erica Diamond (00:40):
Yes, Erica, let's hear it.
Welcome to New Hampshire HasIssues, where we dare to ask,
how do we love our communitybetter?
Liz Canada (00:46):
Ugh.
It's just so good.
See, I love this about guestsbecause I go in and I'm like,
I'm going to be a pain in thebum.
And then the guest is like, I'mgoing to say this beautiful
tagline that is the best thingever.
And I think it is a questionthat is applicable for every
episode, but especially this onewhere, you know, maybe in a lot
(01:08):
of folks' minds, folks who areunhoused, people feel like
they're not part of thecommunity for some reason, when
in fact, they're as much ourcommunity members as anyone else
who's here.
So That's an excellent taglineand tragically accurate as well.
So I am your host, Liz Canada,and joining me today are two
people.
I've never actually had twoguests on the podcast yet.
(01:30):
You are my like initiation intomulti guest podcasting.
Hope it goes okay.
We love to be the first.
Yes, the pioneers first in thenation first on the podcast,
something like that.
So my guests today are twofolks from families in
transition, Eric Erica Diamondand Lauren Bombardier.
(01:50):
Welcome to the show, Erica andLauren.
Thank you for being here.
Erica Diamond (01:54):
Thank you for having us.
Liz Canada (01:56):
Of course.
I am so excited that you arehere because quite a few
episodes ago, I had Nick Tayloron to talk about housing,
affordable housing, housingaffordability, and we just
barely touched on the topic ofhomelessness and unhoused folks.
And a few listeners reached outto me and they're like, you
need to get Erica Diamond andLauren Bombardier you're on this
(02:18):
show now.
Here you are.
Thank you for being the expertsto come talk to me because I've
learned a lot in my time onthis earth, but I'm always
learning more and I'm hoping youcan help me better understand
what's going on in NewHampshire.
What is families in transition?
What do you all do on aday-to-day basis at your
organization?
Because I think it'll helpfolks to know What does your
(02:41):
organization do?
Lauren Bombardier (02:43):
So families in transition, right?
Our mission is to prevent andbreak the cycle of homelessness.
And we do that in a fewdifferent ways, right?
We're not for profit and we arelocated in Manchester and we
provide housing services.
We have a couple of buildingsin Concord as well, but to
prevent and break the cycle ofhomelessness, we do it in a few
different ways.
So we have affordable housing.
(03:05):
I think first and foremost, Ithink we would all agree in our
organization that homelessnessis affordable housing issue so
we have 240 units of affordablehousing you know you just had on
nick taylor and he talked abouthousing really eloquently so
smart we have affordable housingtransitional housing and
permanent supportive housing wehave three types of housing
(03:26):
along with housing we haveshelter shelter does not end
homelessness you are still Sosheltered,
Liz Canada (03:36):
meaning you're at an individual's at an emergency
shelter or is in like a motel,like has received some sort of
support in staying at a hotel ormotel.
Are both of those consideredsheltered or is it specifically
like at an emergency shelter?
Unknown (03:53):
Yeah.
Erica Diamond (03:54):
Those are both considered sheltered as well as
transitional housing, which is aform of housing where you stay
in that housing for up to twoyears.
Oh, okay.
And then are expected to, withsupport, with case management,
move on into a more permanenthousing situation.
Liz Canada (04:13):
Right.
So when I had students, Iworked out in Denver, I was a
high school teacher.
I had students who were withtheir parents going from hotel
to hotel Bopping into grandma'shouse, staying on the couch in
the living room for a few days,and then bopping around.
That family would be sheltered.
Well,
Erica Diamond (04:32):
there is a distinction.
Liz Canada (04:33):
Here's the issue.
Lauren Bombardier (04:35):
When they're doubled up, they're not
sheltered.
They're not counted.
Erica Diamond (04:38):
So if you're staying on a friend's couch, if
you're staying in a sparebedroom of your parents' home,
that is not consideredhomelessness under the HUD
definition.
So when we're talking abouthomelessness, we're generally
using the terms as defined bythe Housing and Urban
Development.
Liz Canada (04:57):
Yeah.
Okay.
This is so helpful.
Lauren, I'm sorry to haveinterrupted you.
No worries.
Interrupt, right?
This is great.
This is really
Lauren Bombardier (05:03):
great.
And I talk fast, so tell me toslow
Liz Canada (05:05):
down too.
I talk fast too.
I'm from New Jersey.
Let's just keep going.
Lauren Bombardier (05:09):
Thank you.
We have the adult shelter,which has 138 beds.
We have a family shelter, whichhas 46 beds and 11 units.
We also have a food pantry, asubstance use program.
Our adult shelter is thelargest in the state.
We're seen as a place that lotsof individuals throughout the
state come to as a place thatthey can receive shelter.
Liz Canada (05:30):
And
Lauren Bombardier (05:31):
then one of the things that I think, For our
organization specifically, isthat being a hand up and not a
handout, and that's through casemanagement services.
So we have case managementthroughout our housing program.
It's not easy to move into ahousing unit when you are
homeless, right?
It takes time to get used tobeing housed.
(05:51):
Like our case management teamworks to keep individuals
housed, right?
Working with them was...
buying furniture, how do theyfunction in a home, cleaning
their home.
It's hard to live in a housewhen you've been in a shelter or
in a place that's uninhabitablefor a human being.
So you have to learn how tolive in a home.
Liz Canada (06:10):
So I like to start every episode with a simple
question.
Is homelessness actually anissue in New Hampshire?
Erica Diamond (06:19):
Yes.
Unknown (06:22):
Yes.
Liz Canada (06:22):
A big one.
Period.
Yes, period.
A big one indeed.
Okay, so tell me more, becauseI think a lot of folks might
assume New Hampshire, big,beautiful, rural, granite state,
and might not associatehomelessness with the state.
So it's an issue, but how bigof an issue?
Lauren, you said a big one.
How big of an issue is it herein New Hampshire?
Erica Diamond (06:44):
I'd say it's big, and it can and likely will
become bigger.
Oh.
And...
It's almost a little bit of aloaded question to answer how
big, because there's sort of twodifferent metrics through which
we measure homelessness and therates of homelessness and how
many people are homeless.
Liz Canada (07:06):
I have no idea.
So like, how do you know howmany folks are homeless in New
Hampshire?
How does an organization knowthat?
Erica Diamond (07:12):
Yeah, so there's basically two ways that we track
homelessness.
The first one is called thepoint in time count or the pit
count for short.
We really love our acronyms inthis
Liz Canada (07:24):
line of work.
Everyone loves an acronym.
Every line of work has theirown fancy acronym.
I'll go with it.
Point in time count.
P-I-T.
Erica Diamond (07:34):
Got it.
Our pit count.
So the pit count is somethingthat happens every single year
and it happens across the entirecountry.
Oh.
Every community of the country.
Liz Canada (07:43):
Oh, wow.
Okay.
Erica Diamond (07:44):
So- You may not know, the country's broken up
into these things calledcontinuums of care.
Liz Canada (07:50):
Okay, I thought you were going to say the country
was broken up into states.
And I was like, Erica, I knowthat much.
There are 50 of them.
Quiz me, Erica.
I know.
Okay, so it's broken up intocontinuums of care.
That I don't know.
So what does that mean?
Erica Diamond (08:04):
So another acronym, COCs.
Yes, great.
So basically what a continuumof care is, is it's both a
geographic region, usually drawnalong county or municipal
lines.
Liz Canada (08:16):
Okay.
Erica Diamond (08:16):
But it's also a collaborative collection of
human beings and organizationswithin a community that in some
way or form touch homelessness.
So that can be providers likeus, like Families in Transition,
that's providing directservices or housing, but it can
also be healthcare providers.
It can be faith-basedorganizations, government
agencies, or even just concernedcitizens.
(08:39):
It really can be anyone thatmakes up this continuum,
wraparound continuum of care.
I'd say there's about 400 inthe country Each state has
varying amounts of COCs.
New Hampshire has three.
We have Manchester COC, whichis our city where FIT is
located.
We have the Nashua COC, whichis sort of the southern bit of
(09:03):
New Hampshire.
And then we have the balance ofstate, which is everything
else.
Liz Canada (09:08):
Everything else.
Manchester, Nashua.
Erica Diamond (09:12):
Everybody else.
Everything else from Portsmouthto North Country is bound
state.
But I bring up those three COCsbecause it's through those COCs
that we are tracking andcounting homelessness.
Kind of returning to the pitcount, every year across the
country, every COC, whicheffectively covers the entire
geography of the United States,has a count, both a sheltered
(09:36):
count and an unsheltered countof people who are experiencing
homelessness.
It happens every on the sametime on January 22nd.
And it usually happens atnight, somewhere between
midnight and about 6 a.m.
Because we are trying to countboth people who are sheltered in
an emergency shelter,transitional housing, a safe
(09:59):
haven.
And we're also trying to countthe unsheltered.
So those are people who areoutside in the street, who may
be in their car, who may be in aplace unfit for habitability.
And so we are sending basicallyvolunteer teams out in the that
down or ideally we're speakingto these people and we are
(10:21):
getting their informationgetting demographic information
and that's how we counthomelessness in the country so
Liz Canada (10:30):
the same day across the country it is the same and
it's in the winter which for usin the northern part of the
country is extremely significanton January 22nd it probably
feels very different than MiamiJanuary 22nd I'm making
assumptions based on thegeography of our country, but
it's probably a differentexperience to be outside
(10:50):
unsheltered in New Hampshireversus in Florida.
That's really interesting.
Erica Diamond (10:55):
You kind of hit the nail on the head with one of
the potential issues with usingthe pit count is particularly
in states like ours where it'svery cold.
People in the coldest months ofthe year tend to hide
themselves away or find placesthat are warmer to go that if
you have a team of volunteersthat's kind of walking in a grid
pattern around the street, wemay not see everyone and they
(11:16):
may not be counted.
And so that's, you know,therein lies the question, are
we even getting an accuratepicture of how many people are
homeless?
So we use a second metric aswell with the pick count.
And so we use the HomelessManagement Information System,
or HMIS.
Liz Canada (11:33):
I'm going to keep track of all these.
These are all going to make
Erica Diamond (11:36):
it.
We'll have to make a littlecheat sheet later.
That's right.
So every COC uses an HMISmanagement system, and at any
point of contact, so it Ifsomeone's accessing a shelter or
services or housing fromhomelessness, they will be
entered with their consent intothis program.
(11:57):
database, this HMIS.
And it's through that databasethat we're able to track over
the course of a year or longersomeone's experience or sort of
journey through the system.
And so in some ways, the HMISdata is a bit more accurate
because it's looking at anentire year as opposed to a
(12:18):
single data point on the coldestnight of the year.
Liz Canada (12:22):
Right.
And so Organizations like yourswould then put that information
in at any point in the year ifsomeone has come in and you're
aware that they are experiencinghomelessness.
That would be part of that sortof longer-term annual review on
top of and in addition to theJanuary 22nd count.
Erica Diamond (12:43):
Yes, and I would note that this is a required
thing that people have to do forcertain types of funding.
However, not every agencythat's serving homelessness
enters data into the system.
So even the HMIS system can beflawed.
Right.
Kind of returning to youroriginal question, how big is
(13:05):
the issue of homelessness?
The truth is it's hard to tell,but using the data points that
we do have, we say that it's bigbecause in 2023, we had a 52%
increase in homelessness.
Liz Canada (13:18):
In New Hampshire alone?
Erica Diamond (13:19):
In New Hampshire alone.
Liz Canada (13:20):
Wow.
Erica Diamond (13:21):
We were first in the nation, number one for the
highest rate increase inhomelessness.
Really?
In 2023.
Liz Canada (13:29):
Wow.
Wow.
Why?
Why did that happen?
That's probably an even morecomplex question, but that's my
immediate question is like, whydid it increase so much?
Erica Diamond (13:41):
So it's a combination of things.
There's a lot of differentthings that go into
homelessness.
And to be fair, for the record,it did decrease by 8% in 2024.
Liz Canada (13:53):
But that was still a big, a big jump in 2023.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah,
Erica Diamond (13:57):
we went from...
1,474 people in 2022 to 2,441people in 2023.
Holy smokes.
According to the PIT count.
And if you go to the HMIScount, it's over 6,000 people.
According to HMIS, we have6,806 unhoused individuals,
(14:18):
which is higher than thepopulation of 80% of New
Hampshire communities.
Liz Canada (14:23):
Holy smokes.
That is...
Okay, so when I asked you howbig of an issue and you said
big...
That's what we mean.
Really, really big issue.
Holy smokes.
What leads to folks becominghomeless?
How does that happen?
And I'll just give a quickcaveat to say, I said this to
Nick too and he made fun of me alittle bit, but I'm on our
town's budget recommendationscommittee, right?
(14:45):
And the subcommittee that I'mon is the, one of them is the
welfare office.
And I have learned so muchabout how our town supports
folks to make sure that they canstay in their homes because if
they lose their homes forwhatever reason and have to go
to a shelter or have to go to ahotel, Like that adds so many
more complexities to them beingable to get back into housing.
(15:07):
So like there are offices inour towns that are there to
support folks as well, inaddition to organization.
So I've just, it has beenreally eye opening to hear about
those types of stories of folkstrying to keep them in their
homes and support them therebecause so many challenges occur
once that housing is gone orlost for whatever reason.
(15:28):
So that is a long way for me toask the question, what leads to
housing?
to someone being homeless inNew Hampshire, being unhoused.
Erica Diamond (15:36):
So we have a simple answer and then we have a
more complicated answer.
Let's just say simple and justcut it.
No.
So the short answer is thathomelessness results from a lack
of affordable housing.
Liz Canada (15:50):
Yeah.
And...
Boy, are we lacking it in NewHampshire.
If I've learned anything onthat episode with Nick, we
really do not have any.
We don't have very much, Ishould say.
Erica Diamond (15:57):
0.6% vacancy rate.
It's wild.
Very
Lauren Bombardier (16:01):
small.
Eric and I both have so manystories, right, that we have
heard.
I hear a lot...
Oh, wow.
Or they've been evicted fromtheir apartment, which we hear
(16:28):
more about lately aboutdevelopers are selling and
buying apartments.
And then they're out of rent.
Rent can't go up $2,000,$1,000.
They can't swing that a month.
Eric, I know you have aplethora of stories too.
Yeah.
Erica Diamond (16:42):
And I'll just add, you know, when we're
talking about the aging orelderly population, generally
what we mean is people who are65 and older.
And that's definitely the...
most rapidly increasingpopulation in homelessness.
About one in five people whoexperience homelessness are in
that 65 and up category, andit's only increasing, especially
(17:05):
in a state where we have someof the oldest people in the
country.
Liz Canada (17:09):
One in five?
Yeah.
Yes.
And that's just, you're justtalking about New Hampshire.
You're not talking about thewhole country.
So
Erica Diamond (17:18):
that's actually for the whole country.
Oh, that's the whole country.
Yeah, but it's the same trend.
But still, still shocking.
Yeah.
It's closer to one in four inNew Hampshire.
Okay, so worse is what you'resaying, Erica.
Are over 65, yes.
So
Lauren Bombardier (17:32):
Liz, if you came for a tour of our adult
shelter, we talk about it oftenis that the population of our
adult shelter is aging, right?
And a couple of years ago, itwas 45 was the average age.
Now it's 47.
I mean, that doesn't seem likea big jump, but that's
significant when you walkthrough the adult shelter and
you see people who are elderlythere.
You know, they're living outtheir later years in life at the
adult shelter, and that's not aplace for them to be.
Liz Canada (17:55):
My mind is boggled right now.
You know, yes, we are an agingstate.
And of course, logically, Iguess, like if we are an aging
state, then therefore also thefolks who are experiencing
homelessness are also of anaging demographic.
But I'm just going to behonest, it hadn't occurred to
(18:15):
me.
Like, that's really, reallywild.
Erica Diamond (18:17):
Yeah, and I mean, I think part of it is, you
know...
people who are older tend to beon a more fixed income.
As the rental rates areincreasing year over year, but
the amount that they're gettingon a fixed income is not keeping
pace with that.
We're seeing more and moreelderly folks winding up in
homelessness or in kind ofunstable housing situations.
(18:39):
We also see that as familiesare struggling more now with
their finances or being able tokeep themselves stable, it's
more difficult for them to maybetake in Right.
Right.
Lauren Bombardier (19:14):
They're waking up, they're going to
work, but they have medicalbills, life is expensive, and
there's no affordable housing.
Liz Canada (19:21):
So there's the question of how does someone
become homeless, which is lackof affordable housing.
Erica Diamond (19:26):
And I'd say lack of affordable housing paired
with a lack of social supportsystems.
So you can't really have onewithout the other.
It doesn't suffice to simplyput someone into a home and then
say, great, you're no longerhomeless.
High
Liz Canada (19:40):
five.
Here's your key.
Off
Erica Diamond (19:42):
you go.
I think that's where the ideaof...
know how do we as a communitycreate that safety net or that
that support system to reallykeep people housed so it's
really like a two-part system ofwe need more housing but we
also need to make sure thatwe're putting in the supports in
place to help people maintainthat housing and i mean i think
(20:04):
again talking about the elderlyor talking about you know
someone who may need um likehealth care or who's working you
know like we are seeing cuts tomedicaid for example and so
when you're losing that support,if you're cutting Medicaid and
there's 46,000 granite staterswho are going to be affected by
this big Medicaid cut from thebig beautiful bill.
But there's a trickle downeffect, right, of that.
Liz Canada (20:29):
Not the trickle down effect they want to happen from
this bill, but the trickle downof negative impacts on everyday
folks.
Erica Diamond (20:36):
Yeah.
But yeah, I mean, I think thatthat's an example of a social
support system that's being cutor defunded and then taking that
away doesn't help peoplemaintain housing.
Right.
And that's why we need supportslike child care, employment
help, veterans affairs.
If someone's a veteran, that isactually the one thing that we
do right in New Hampshire ishelping our homeless veterans.
(20:59):
Okay.
Another first in the nation.
Okay.
We are actually in that same2023 report where we were 52%
homeless up in our homelessnessrate, we actually were the best
of any state in reducing therate of homelessness in veterans
(21:20):
specifically.
Liz Canada (21:21):
Wow.
Okay, we'll take that stat.
That's a positive stat.
Erica Diamond (21:25):
That's good to hear.
And it's because we put fundinginto it.
We put a lot more funding intoit.
Liz Canada (21:30):
Well, well, well.
Have we hit maybe a thing thatcould solve some of these issues
is maybe funding.
Erica Diamond (21:38):
And I'd also say there's more of a...
How do I put it?
There's more of a socialacceptance for veterans and then
wanting to help veterans whoare experiencing homelessness as
opposed to some of the otherdemographics that we see.
We talked about elderly, butyou know, Another big
demographic that we're seeingrising is children, so youth 25
(22:01):
and under.
There's a very large increasein youth homelessness, and
particularly in the LGBTQcommunity.
They're very overrepresented inthe homelessness population.
About 40% of youth who arehomeless identify as LGBTQ+.
That is a national statistic,but we're seeing very similar
(22:23):
parallels in the New Hampshiredata as well.
Liz Canada (22:26):
Some of that, I imagine, is likely because they
have been rejected from theirhomes by family members or
whomever and now are outside ofthe home that they have been in
for so long.
That's really horrifying.
Erica Diamond (22:40):
It's horrifying.
It's terrible.
And I think that it's also agood point of comparison where
you see, you know, A child mayidentify one way or another, may
not be getting the same kind ofsupports as maybe a veteran as
far as like funding or thesocial supports that are
(23:01):
available to them.
Liz Canada (23:02):
Yeah.
That's scary.
It's scary to think about thatsome folks, at least in how
actions happen, how funding goesout, to think that some folks
who are homeless are maybehigher priorities, higher
targets for supporting themversus others.
That's lots of process there.
Erica Diamond (23:22):
I think it's partly built into the common
misconceptions abouthomelessness and what do people
think of when they think ofsomeone who's experiencing
homelessness.
And it's not always just themiddle-aged man on the street
corner.
It's your grandmother.
It's a child.
It's...
Liz Canada (23:40):
a mother.
Yeah, what are themisconceptions?
Because I think that's a reallygood one to dig into.
What have you found when youtalk to folks?
Lauren Bombardier (23:48):
I mean, I think that what we see all the
time is what Erica just said,like everyone thinks it's a
middle-aged man on the corner,right?
Panhandling, asking for money,someone who is scary or dirty.
When we provide tours of ourprogramming, I would say that's
not how people feel at all,right?
Everyone in the shelter, wehave an adult shelter, right?
Right.
(24:09):
Yeah.
unclean person it's that's notwhat we see for homelessness um
(24:33):
we're seeing a lot of peoplelike people who are working who
are one paycheck away right alot of americans are one
paycheck away from beinghomeless right yeah their
families their individuals butwith the price of life and and
housing housing
Liz Canada (24:48):
right sometimes it's impossible transportation like
this is not a state that isreally walkable there's a lot of
places you can walk to yepchild care all of those things
are expensive yeah
Erica Diamond (24:59):
The main misconception, I think, is that
just it's not what you see inthe media.
It's not what you immediatelythink of.
I think another misconception Iwould add is that it's not easy
to get I think that there'ssometimes this idea of like, why
don't you just get anapartment?
Why don't you just get a job?
Why don't you just?
And there's so many barriers,even if you've accessed the
(25:21):
right resources, even if youhave help that can prevent you
from actually getting to thatpoint of being housed.
So there's eligibilityrequirements.
So there may be certain unitsor certain apartment buildings
that you qualify for or don'tbased on your family size, based
on your income, sometimes basedon like disability.
Yeah.
(25:41):
It all compounds that even ifyou're at that precipice of
being housed, you can still behit with a wall or a barrier
that's preventing you fromgetting those keys.
So I think that that's anothermisconception that it's not,
though I wish it were, it's notas simple even as just getting a
house or finding an apartment.
(26:01):
There's a lot of steps thatlead up to getting into that
home.
And I think that that's, again,where that case management
support network, those socialservices really play a big role
is helping helping guide peoplethrough those often very
complicated barriers.
Lauren Bombardier (26:18):
Erica, I think that's a really good point
because when we have a unitthat opens up, the next person
on the list just can't move in.
The units are specific to
Erica Diamond (26:27):
funding types, to contracts on the building.
Oh.
It's not as simple as we have avacancy, let's put someone
right in.
Lauren Bombardier (26:36):
And I don't have the number off the top of
my head, Erica.
Do you know what our wait listis for our housing?
Erica Diamond (26:41):
The last time I checked, which was a couple
weeks ago, it was sitting aroundlike 400 people.
Lauren Bombardier (26:47):
On our wait list for our
Erica Diamond (26:48):
housing.
We get about 100 calls a weekinto our intake department of
people looking for housing.
And at our family shelter, it'sabout 25 families right now who
are on the wait list.
Lauren Bombardier (27:02):
And those are families that are in
uninhabitable locations,
Erica Diamond (27:05):
right?
They're living in their car.
They're living in an abandonedbuilding.
They're living on the side ofthe road.
Lauren Bombardier (27:10):
Our intake coordinator spends about 45
minutes on the phone to makesure to work on diversion and
prevention measures, which couldlead to they could be doubled
up.
Like that's a better place forthem to be with a friend or a
family member.
Erica Diamond (27:22):
When we have a point of contact, we always try
to do that prevention anddiversion work because
prevention and diversion isactually the best way to combat
homelessness.
If someone does not fall intothat homeless cycle in the first
place.
That's really, you know, that'sthe part of our mission, the
preventing the cycle in thefirst place, that prevention
diversion.
But if that's not successful,we do an assessment through
(27:44):
coordinated entry to sort offigure out how vulnerable
someone is.
There's sort of a scoringcomponent using a lot of
different factors.
You know, do you have children?
Are you fleeing an imminentdangerous situation potentially
domestic violence to assess youknow who's the most vulnerable
and that's how the wait list isdetermined so we're trying to
(28:07):
pull the people who are most inimmediate need first to get them
into housing across ourcontinuum of care and sometimes
statewide.
So our continuums of careorganize and work together.
So if someone comes intoManchester and a different
continuum of care has a spotavailable for them, we try to
coordinate when we can, if theperson's up to moving somewhere
(28:31):
else.
We're constantly talkingbecause we're trying not to stay
in our little silo of, this isjust Manchester.
This is just a Nashua problem.
It's really a statewideproblem.
And we're really working tofigure out what can we do as a
state as the wider community toaddress this and to help each
other.
Liz Canada (28:49):
How many shelters and beds are available across
the state?
Erica Diamond (28:54):
So it's a complicated question.
Liz Canada (28:55):
Okay.
I didn't think that one was socomplicated.
So that's interesting to hearthat that's a complicated
question.
Yeah.
Erica Diamond (29:00):
Unfortunately, I can't give you just an easy
number because there's nocentralized list or resource
that tells you where all theshelters are in the state.
On purpose?
You think there would be,there's not.
And I can explain why.
It's because shelters come inall forms and sizes.
And so when we're talking aboutshelter, what are we talking
(29:24):
about?
Because you have emergencyshelters, like the ones that
Families in Transition runs,where there's sort of like
your...
typical vision of a shelter,but we also have smaller
shelters that may still beemergency shelter, but may not
be serving 138 individuals.
You have a lot of faith-basedorganizations doing this work,
(29:45):
smaller nonprofits, wherethey're definitely doing
emergency sheltering, but theymay be housing one family, two
people.
It may be a church with a sparebedroom in the back.
They may not be entering intothat homeless management
information system, so we're nottracking it we don't know the
work that's happening you alsohave like domestic violence
shelters certain youth shelterswhich operate with discretion
(30:09):
and tend to be a bit moresecretive intentionally about
what they're doing and then youhave things like winter warming
shelters which are temporarycrop up shelters specifically
for the winter time to keeppeople warm so that they do not
freeze to death so all of thosethings are considered shelters
but it can be difficult to givea number because how many winter
(30:32):
warming shelters are going tocrop up this winter?
How many churches or synagoguesor mosques are providing
shelter for people but aren'tnecessarily reporting it to
these bigger databases?
Lauren Bombardier (30:43):
But I think it's important to note that we
can say that we do know that 13shelters are funded by the state
grant and aid funding throughthe state of New Hampshire.
I'm sorry, through DHHS eachyear.
Liz Canada (30:57):
Department of Health and Human Services in New
Hampshire.
Lauren Bombardier (31:00):
Oh, I'm sorry.
That was Department of Healthand Human Services.
Liz Canada (31:04):
It's like I'm being quizzed.
I'm like, okay, I know thatone.
Department of Health and HumanServices.
Okay, so there's 13 thatreceive funding through DHHS.
Erica Diamond (31:13):
Yeah, so the state does provide funding for
emergency shelters.
This past year, actually,Senator Birdsell...
Shout out to her that shepushed through level funding for
emergency shelters.
Liz Canada (31:27):
Was that part of the state budget?
It's
Erica Diamond (31:29):
part of the state budget.
Okay.
Yep.
So 2023, we received $8 per bedper day for sheltering.
In 2024, we got $20 per bed perday, so there was an increase.
And then there was also anemergency funding bill that went
through that provided an extra$7.32.
So as of 2024, we werereceiving $27 roughly per bed
(31:54):
per day that we were providing.
And then through this mostrecent budget cycle, the funding
is coming through again at $27per bed.
Okay.
To put that into perspective,for families in transition, it
costs about $45 per bed per dayto operate the shelter.
Yep.
Though we have partners who sayour operating cost is closer to
(32:14):
$75 per bed per day or $100 perbed per day.
In any case, the funding, we'redefinitely grateful for it, but
it's not enough to rely solelyon that one source of state
funding.
Right.
But yeah, so there are 13shelters across the state that
are receiving that funding butthere are definitely many, many
more shelters that are doing thework but are not able to rely
(32:37):
on the state for that work.
Liz Canada (32:39):
Maybe this is a bias or an assumption that I am
making, but I feel like a lot offolks when they think about
homelessness they might thinkabout tents or encampments or
things like that and then feelthat homelessness is not an
issue in their community if thatisn't happening and so if
somebody comes through andclears out tents it's like oh
thank goodness now the problemis solved and I think that just
(33:01):
means those folks are not nolonger physically visibly
present that hasn't solvedactually anything but what
happens when folks are clearedout of a space like that They're
cleared
Lauren Bombardier (33:14):
out from the space.
Erica Diamond (33:17):
Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head that
when an encampment is moved orpeople are cleared out, it's not
solving homelessness.
It's merely making it lessvisible.
That's, again, maybe amisconception about homelessness
that, oh, if we're not seeingit, it's not happening.
It's
Liz Canada (33:35):
not here.
Like, if I don't see it in mytown, then we don't have
homeless folks in my town.
That's
Erica Diamond (33:40):
just not true.
Right.
It's something that you oftensee when comparing cities versus
rural spaces.
We think, oh, homelessness isworse in cities.
And I mean, there's some truthto that.
The data shows there tend tobe...
There's more people.
It's like by density, there'sjust more people.
But it's also because there'smore resources in cities and
(34:04):
because rural homelessness oftenlooks a bit...
different.
It's someone staying in a shed.
It's someone staying deep inthe woods.
And again, if you're doingsomething like the pit count
where you're just trying to makea grid of volunteers, I mean,
there's no way to actuallyaccount for how many people are
up in the North country, whoknows where.
The issue of clearing outencampments does not solve
(34:25):
homelessness.
And actually, it's just makingit harder to see.
And also what it does is ifyou're pushing people out,
whether it's with strictordinances or fines or things
like that, people are becomingmore transient.
Instead of staying in one placefor a long time, they're moving
every few days.
They're moving in the middle ofthe night.
(34:47):
They're having to finddifferent places to go so that
they're not swept up.
And one of the consequences ofthat is that outreach workers
have a more difficult time ofreconnecting with folks that
they're building a relationshipwith.
So you may have plan to meet upwith Joe to help him get
(35:08):
employment, help him get aphone, help him get medication,
whatever it may be that heneeds.
And you make a plan, hey, we'llmeet back here tomorrow.
But if Joe has to move in themiddle of the night or his
tent's swept up, you may not beable to find him again, or it
may be a long time before youare.
And so we're losing connectionswith people that we're trying
(35:29):
to help because of ordinanceslike that.
Unknown (35:33):
Yeah.
Erica Diamond (35:33):
What are
Liz Canada (35:33):
the answers?
What can happen?
What can cities and towns do?
What can the state do?
I heard you give a shout out toSenator Birdsell for making
sure that the funding was thesame from before and that it's
still not enough, but thatthere's something to that of it
at least being the same,especially with this recent
(35:55):
state budget where a lot ofservices were cut.
What's the answer, Erica andLauren?
Tell me what needs to happen.
I
Erica Diamond (36:01):
think it's a few different things.
I think the first piece istalking about what can we do at
a city level and then what canwe do at a state or even
potentially a federal level.
City levels, I think it's aboutgetting more involved with your
community.
I think in a city or townsetting, you have...
the ability to create moreimpact that may be joining a
(36:25):
zoning board.
Liz Canada (36:26):
We're back to zoning boards, baby.
You all thought it was over,listener, but we are so bad.
Can't get away from it.
But it's true, right?
Like that sort of local levelto better understand, like what
are we dealing with here withbeing able to have housing in
our community?
Erica Diamond (36:43):
Yeah, it's going to a general assembly meeting
for your continuum of care.
Every continuum of care,usually every month or every
other month is havingcommunity-wide meetings.
You can find them on theCommunity of Care websites.
Go to one.
It's very enlightening.
We have people who areexperiencing homelessness.
We have agencies providingservices.
(37:04):
We have firefighters.
We have policemen.
We have everyone who's involvedin some way with these services
showing up to these GeneralAssembly meetings and talking
about what can we do.
I think at a state level, it'sa little bit different because I
think a lot of the onus ofaddressing homelessness
statutorily falls on cities andtowns.
(37:26):
Yeah.
Lauren Bombardier (37:27):
Yeah,
Erica Diamond (37:28):
they do.
The RSA 165.1 requires thatcities and towns take the brunt
of addressing homelessness andjust poverty in general.
We're required to support ourpoor and help people survive.
maintain housing at a citylevel.
But state level, one of thethings that is talked a lot
about in our circles that wewould love to see in the near
(37:51):
future is medical respite.
Liz Canada (37:54):
What
Erica Diamond (37:54):
does that mean?
Medical respite is effectivelya stepping stone between a
hospital stay and returning tohomelessness.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, so if you are someonewho's experiencing homelessness
or you don't necessarily have aplace to go and you go to the
hospital as everyone at somepoint in their lives will
(38:15):
probably do.
Hospitals cannot legallydischarge you back to the
street.
So oftentimes what's happeningis hospitals are discharging
people to shelters or they'redischarging them back to the
street and just kind of notreporting it.
So What happens with that istypically you would have some
kind of program called medicalrespite where it's a place to
(38:36):
send people so that they canrecover.
So if we're sending people toshelters directly after
hospitalization, you'repotentially putting them into a
crowded congregate living space.
You're potentially putting theminto a place where there's bunk
beds.
And if you just got a kneesurgery, how are you getting to
the top bunk bed?
You know, that kind of thing.
And the shelter staff may notbe prepared to address the need.
(38:57):
specific needs of your healthissue.
Like the healthcare
Liz Canada (39:01):
follow-up that might be needed for someone for all
sorts of issues that led you toa hospital in the first place,
right?
Erica Diamond (39:09):
Right.
So you may not have that.
And alternatively, if thehospital says, you know, we're
not going to send you back to ashelter, we're not going to put
you on the street, then thatmeans we're keeping you in this
hospital bed, which thentranslates to you are
accruing...
More medical expenses that youmaybe can't pay for.
And we're also kind of holdinga bed that someone who may...
(39:31):
now have an emergency, can'tuse.
So it's really kind ofsomething that affects everyone.
It's not just a homelessnessissue.
It's not just a hospital issue.
It's a, again, community-wideissue.
And every other state in NewEngland has a medical respite
program.
New Hampshire's the only onethat does not.
Liz Canada (39:51):
One of my least favorite start of a sentence or
end of a sentence is, NewHampshire is the only state that
does not.
Erica Diamond (39:57):
If someone's coming out of the hospital,
potentially going intohomelessness from the hospital
like they are.
Yeah.
having one of the worst momentsof their life.
And it's important to note thatonce you're in the medical
respite, not only are youreceiving the medical care from
qualified professionals, buttypically that's another point
of contact where you can havethings like case management and
supportive services that arehelping you line up a place to
(40:20):
go once you're released.
So that it's not just we're inmedical respite and then we wind
up in homelessness.
It's not a delay.
It's actually giving you thattime to set something up while
you're able to recover from it.
outside of the hospital.
Liz Canada (40:35):
A stepping stone, which I think you said earlier,
like the idea of it's atransition that leads into
housing, leads into safety and aplace to be long-term.
Wowee, wow.
We're the only state in NewEngland.
Okay.
Erica Diamond (40:51):
It is something that a lot of providers in our
field have been vocal about,have advocated for.
It is not something that's cometo fruition yet.
Liz Canada (41:03):
Okay.
Erica Diamond (41:04):
And I think that that sort of leads into another
sort of final suggestion, likewhat can you do at a city or
state level, or even a federallevel, is vote.
Please vote.
Liz Canada (41:17):
Hi, everyone.
Voting is a great thing.
It's great for you and me, forfolks to vote.
Erica Diamond (41:24):
Yep, yep.
Vote and...
call your representatives.
The National Alliance to EndHomelessness actually has a lot
of good resources on theirwebsite.
They have resources that youcan take templates where you can
just send your concerns to yoursenators, to your
representatives.
Liz Canada (41:39):
Those are all excellent next steps for people.
You have given us homework.
You've given me homework,Lauren and Erica, both of you.
We can do better in NewHampshire, it sounds like.
You guys are great.
It's incredible.
You're doing incredible work.
Thank you for all the thingsthat you're doing.
Erica Diamond (41:55):
I think you're doing great work too.
I mean, just providing aplatform where we or other
people can come and talk aboutthese things that we're seeing,
that we're deeply entrenched inour line of work, that people
just understand what's happeningin their community.
Liz Canada (42:09):
Thank you for helping inform me and probably
other people as well who listen.
So thank you both very much foryour time.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you, Liz.
Erica Diamond (42:17):
Thank you.
Liz Canada (42:17):
This was fun.
I
Erica Diamond (42:19):
feel good.
Yeah, I think it was great.
Liz Canada (42:21):
Amazing.
I might need to have you bothback on because we might need to
do a follow-up.
Erica Diamond (42:38):
We will happily jump on.
We'll love a follow-up.
Liz Canada (42:43):
This is horrifying.
I'm horrified.
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