Town to Fund Group for Homeless

Windham Selectmen agreed to budget $5,000 for a local homelessness support group program set to begin in January.

Family Promise of Greater Rockingham County, which specifically deals with homeless children and their adult caretakers, has designed the Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN).

As part of the program, 10 host sites and 15 congregations will rotate as shelters for homeless families at night. A separate day center at Calvary Bible Church in Derry will serve as the day center, where the families will be before going to the church at 5:30 p.m. The families will spend one week at each church.

"We're doing this because we just feel it makes a community stronger when we help children and their families get back on their feet," said Melanie Nesheim, president of the organization.

Nesheim stressed that it takes about 10 weeks on average for a family to get back on its feet in the IHN program.

She compared Windham's $5,000 budget contribution to the $3,250 that it costs to shelter one family in the Manor Motel.

When parents in the program are working, they are required to save 75 percent of their income to use toward the security deposit for their next apartment.

"That's another thing that doesn't happen when we just put them in the Manor Motel," Nesheim said.

A total of 16 towns have been asked to contribute the same money to the program. Right now, two-thirds of the program is funded through donations.

"We're really just asking each of the towns to do a little bit of their share to support us," Nesheim said.

Of the 158 homeless families with children in New Hampshire, eight are in Windham.

The annual budget for the IHN program is $140,000, which covers the cost for a network director, two part-time bus drivers, day center rental and the cost for maintaining a 16-person van to transport the families.

Should the town refer a homeless person or family to the program and it's full, those people will be put on a waiting list. The full capacity is five families or up to 14 individuals at a time.

People with situations of drug abuse or undiagnosed mental illness are not part of the program, and those who enter in are screened.

At the day center, Nesheim said that people are educated on financial literacy, how to write a resume and how to interview successfully.

The new $5,000 budget line item for Family Promise will not increase the overall budget. The $7,500 funded for hardship abatements in the 'general assistance' section has been knocked down to $2,500.

The program will also serve Londonderry, Derry, Pelham, Auburn, Chester, Salem, Sandown, Hampstead, Atkinson, Danville, Raymond, Fremont, Plaistow, Kingston and Newton.