On this week’s episode of Give Back New Hampshire, we focus on the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness. Founded in 2009, the Coalition is at the forefront of Concord’s response to homelessness, dedicating itself to eliminating chronic homelessness.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Karen Jantzen: I am Karen Jantzen. I am the executive director of the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness.
Sierra Hubbard: My name is Sierra Hubbard. I am our Supportive Housing Program Manager here at CCEH.
Miles Whitener: I'm Miles Whitener. I sit on the Concord Coalition's board of directors, and I'm a one-time client of CCEH.
Karen Jantzen: Our mission is pretty simple — it's in our name. It's to end homelessness in our community. We started out as a pretty much a volunteer organization, and over time we have grown. We serve hundreds upon hundreds of clients experiencing homelessness every day. We are a Concord based organization. We work with a lot of our partner agencies across the state in trying to eliminate homelessness, but the clients we serve are in the greater Concord area.
When we first started, we were a simple resource center, a place for people to come grab a cup of coffee and a place for people to get their mail. We've expanded from just having a resource center. We also offer supportive housing program.
Sierra Hubbard: So people who come from long-term homelessness and move into housing, either through properties that we own and provide those services, or through tenant based programs where we help them find an apartment out in the community. We provide supportive services, which is essentially case management, but also assistance with maybe getting groceries or making sure that they pay their rent on time. If it falls under the umbrella of helping to keep somebody housed, then we're going to do that to assist that person.
Karen Jantzen: We are a low barrier shelter. We have 40 beds and we're open seven days a week through December, January, February and March.
Miles Whitener: It's almost as at times . . . like a triage situation. You have people that are coming in that are stressed out from the day. You see all kinds of things, just people shivering. Sometimes you'll end up treating small wounds, cuts, contusions and stuff. It can be an experience if you're not used to it, but it's got its high sides, too, because you have the people that are coming in that are happy for the day to be over with. They're happy for that bunk. And early on in the season, a lot of times people are just coming in and they're done. They want to go to sleep, and that's it. They hit the bunks, and they're out like a light.
Karen Jantzen: I think a huge challenge is housing. It's hard to help people and end homelessness if you just don't have a place where you can put them.
Sierra Hubbard: It's all about providing options for people so that they have choices in where they live. And in this rental market, we can't provide that, which is really difficult. Um, we can't realistically give somebody a lot of options on apartments because we're lucky if we can find one.
Karen Jantzen: Funding is always a challenge, and volunteers are kind of the lifeblood of how we get things done here on a day to day basis, and we can always use more volunteers.
Miles Whitener: I was a client here for two years, I guess? The whole time that I was, I was at my camp. And it started with, I like to pull my own weight. I just feel like if someone's taking care of me, I want, I want to give back to who's who's helping me. And then, you know, the idea was brought up, well, you know, they would like to have a lived experience voice on the board of directors. And that opportunity was presented to me and I went for it. I just I wanted to give back to the people that had essentially taken care of me for two years.
I have a very profound, deep belief that in the end, humankind will make the right choices, and the people that do this are going to show them how to do it. And I do believe eventually, over time, humanity will respond and do the right thing. And I want to be on that path with them when they make that choice.
