Strafford County shelter to return

DOVER — Strafford County will once again operate an emergency cold weather shelter for area homeless residents and others in need this fall and winter.

County Commissioner George Maglaras said the county is still working with municipal emergency management directors, other municipal officials and the Tri-City Mayors’ Task Force on Homeless to determine the weather and safety conditions that could trigger the temporary shelter to open. He said they envision it will be similar to how they operated last winter’s shelter.

“I’m happy the county is in a position right now to help the local communities,” said Maglaras, referring to the fact that the Seacoast’s increasingly high cost of rent and near-zero rental vacancy rates are dramatically increasing homelessness.

Last winter, the county used the second floor of 276 County Farm Road in Dover, a county-owned building commonly known as the almshouse, as a low-barrier overnight shelter once in December 2018 and twice in January.

Staffed by the Integrated Delivery Network and other county staff and volunteers, the shelter helped connect several dozen people to wraparound services for the first time, in addition to providing meals, other services and a safe place for people to get out of wooded areas and living situations in which they had no heat.

Several sheltered residents described both the shelter and their personal survival as a “miracle.”

The shelter operated during periods in which weather and other conditions presented a risk to public safety. Last winter’s shelter used daily New Hampshire Homeland Security warnings and briefings to help make the determination. 

Maglaras said he anticipates this year’s shelter will do the same, but conversations are ongoing to further refine the trigger mechanism.

“The issue is it could be 32 degrees and raining and freezing rain, and that’s cold, or 20 degrees and bright and sunny,” Maglaras said, describing examples of weather the federal government doesn’t traditionally consider life-threatening or a public health emergency. “We’re working on it right now.”

After Rochester Mayor Caroline McCarley briefed her City Council about the county’s shelter commitment during a public workshop Tuesday night, Deputy Mayor Ray Varney urged the trigger mechanism to be finalized quickly.

“It’s almost September now,” said Varney.

McCarley replied by stating everyone involved in the conversations, including herself and the mayors of Dover and Somersworth, are “painfully aware.”

In order to improve the shelter’s operations this time around, Maglaras said the county is looking for area communities to be more involved in coordinating transportation to and from the shelter. Last year, the county and its partners, including COAST, provided transportation.

Maglaras also said he’s hopeful that ongoing efforts to implement the Tri-City Mayors’ Task Force on Homelessness’ master plan will help improve inter-community collaboration on sheltering strategies, alter zoning that inhibits affordable and supportive housing, and begin other efforts outlined in the plan as ways to reduce or prevent homelessness.

Each of the Tri-Cities accepted the 53-page, non-funded, nonbinding master plan this past spring. The cities' mayors say they’re in the process of finalizing a smaller regional group that they’ll task with overseeing the implementation of the plan’s various recommendations. The names of those individuals is expected to be finalized in the near future, according to the mayors.

Several social service providers and homeless outreach coordinators have expressed a desire for temporary sheltering to occur during hot summer months, not just the winter. They have said sun exposure and dehydration pose dangers that are at least as severe as cold weather.

There are no firm plans to do so under the master plan, through the county's budgets or through the budgets of the individual communities. However, the topic has been discussed throughout the process and task force members have said they expect it to be part of the conversation as their cities evaluate potential funding for homeless initiatives.