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imagine for a moment at the end of the
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day you have absolutely nowhere to sleep
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tonight you have no family or friends
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whose couch you can crash on you've lost
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most of your belongings and only have
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with you what you can carry what's most
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precious or irreplaceable
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did you pack these things or more
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practical items you have no cash no
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credit cards no bank account and no car
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you have not yet eaten today is the Sun
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begins to set and the temperature falls
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it then begins to rain you are hungry
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exhausted and scared and you have two
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children with you you are homeless
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this might seem unimaginable to you but
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it happens every day here in our
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community despite the fact that we live
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in an amazing community with a cultural
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historical and culinary attractions that
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thousands flock to visit every year we
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do have a problem with homelessness it's
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unlikely if you were to walk downtown
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that you would see anyone sleeping on
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the street in our town but homelessness
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can be very invisible tonight there will
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be hundreds of people who are sleeping
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either doubled up sleeping somewhere not
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meant for human habitation like a
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vehicle sleeping in a shelter or even
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sleeping outside an attempt is made each
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year to count the number of people who
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are homeless in our country in our
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community last year over five hundred
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and seventy thousand people nationally
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were counted in something called a
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point-in-time count which attempts to
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count people who are both sheltered and
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unsheltered in our country in New
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Hampshire that number was just over
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2,200 nearly five thousand people stayed
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in shelters in New Hampshire last year
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and almost 900 of them were children
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this is Crossroads House a 96 bed
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privately run shelter here in Portsmouth
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New Hampshire where I'm the executive
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director we've been providing services
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to the homeless since 1982 last year at
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our shelter we provided services to 469
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people 32 families with 53 children so
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if I asked you to picture a typical
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resident what image comes to mind take a
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moment and get a picture in your head
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did you picture someone like this living
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on the street well it's quite possible
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we do see people coming into our shelter
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who have been living outside but what
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about this a mother and a child or this
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young woman what about a young man this
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young man is just barely older than a
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high school student yet he's already out
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on his own what about these little guys
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with the exception of that first photo
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that I showed you all of these people
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have recently stayed with us the reality
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is people who are homeless look just
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like you and me they may be serving your
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coffee in the morning or bagging your
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groceries at the eat at the end of the
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day they might be cleaning the office
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where you work or they might be driving
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a taxi the child sitting next to your
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child in the classroom might be
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returning to a shelter at the end of the
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day the point is homelessness can and
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does happen to all types of people we
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provide shelter to both individuals and
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families and we operate at full capacity
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year-round which often surprises people
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regardless of the weather
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homelessness happens all the time on any
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given night under our roof we have close
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to a hundred people and they will be
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ranging an age from infants right up
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through senior citizens so how do people
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become homeless what are the causes it's
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rarely just one thing that happens it's
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typically a series of things some of the
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some of the common causes are lack of
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resources money is almost always one of
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the issues breakups of a relationship or
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a severe traumatic event can cause
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someone to lose their housing
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alcohol and drug addiction people are at
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all stages of recovery sometimes when
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they come to seek shelter from us people
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with developmental disabilities I've
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actually seen people dropped off at our
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front door because their caregiver is no
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longer able to care for them there are
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people leaving prison who need a place
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to start over and last but certainly not
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least our physical and mental illnesses
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which are often untreated so to explain
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a little bit better all of these
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challenges that people need to overcome
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and kind of level of services that we
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need to provide to help them overcome
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those I want to tell you three short
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stories the first one is about a young
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man who stayed in a transitional shelter
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room like this one he basically needed a
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place to get back on his feet he had
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fallen on hard times he had suffered
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from an alcohol addiction but had since
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gotten sober now in his case he didn't
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have any major medical issues other than
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his alcoholism he had education he had
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experience he had job history as it
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turned out he was a talented chef and he
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easily found employment in our amazing
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town with so many restaurants and he was
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able to get back on his feet and move
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out after only a couple of months he
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just needed the time to save up enough
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money for his first month's rent and
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security deposit so we gave him a place
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to do that but he didn't need a lot from
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us other than a place to stay in the
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next example I want to share was about a
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family it was a five person family two
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parents three little girls under the age
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of five two of whom you see here believe
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that was a Halloween party we threw they
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needed a lot of support to us they came
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to us and they needed all sorts of
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services that we helped connect them to
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we help them get health insurance the
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family needed both medical care and
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mental health care and once supported
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the family was able both parents were
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able to go to work they ended up mom
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worked on her GED and they got the kids
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in Head Start and they took parenting
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classes so they did a lot of work while
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they were with us but here's the
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interesting thing once they went back to
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work and both parents were employed they
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were
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still not earning enough money to afford
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a market rate apartment in our community
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so they needed to put their names on a
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subsidized housing waiting list now
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where we live here those waiting lists
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are long for our family the wait to get
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a subsidized apartment is six months to
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one year for an individual it's one to
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two years the good news is is that this
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family was able to move out after just
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six months into an apartment that they
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were going to be able to afford now the
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last story I want to share with you is
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about a gentleman I will call Leo he
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represents the most challenging clients
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that we serve he was hit finding
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permanent housing for clients like him
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is particularly difficult because
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they're not he was not going to be able
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to work even if someone is on disability
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it's often not enough to afford housing
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now his story he was a forty plus year
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veteran had earned a Purple Heart and
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showed up at our shelter his last
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possession was his vehicle one of the
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many things that we needed to do for him
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was help him surrender his driver's
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license and his car because it was
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unsafe for him to be driving he in
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addition to many medical conditions also
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was suffering from dementia so if you've
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ever gone through that with your own
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family remember having to have them
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surrender a license you can imagine the
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difficulty of that he had no family
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support with the exception of one
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brother who lived all the way on the
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other side of the country
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so making decisions was very challenging
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eventually after a full year we were
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able to secure a bed for him in a
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veteran's home but here's an interesting
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thing when the time came for him to move
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out he didn't want to leave we had
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become his new family his support the
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people who work at our shelter and the
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other residents made him feel safe and
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comfortable so we had to work extra hard
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to convince and support him in that move
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to a place where we knew that he was
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going to get the care that he really
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deserved now the challenges for children
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who are homeless are unique they grow up
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way too fast you can imagine if a child
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is worrying about where they're going to
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sleep
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every night how that could be a
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distraction and get in the way of their
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education and the work in the classroom
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truancy is also common among children
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who are homeless think about this
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something as simple as a playdate I
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remember once a mother who was at our
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shelter shared a story with me she was
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heartbroken that her children were not
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invited to play at other children's
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homes and they certainly weren't coming
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back to the shelter for playdates she
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wept as she told me this story it was
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really heartbreaking for her people just
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want their children to be treated like
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everybody else the challenges for older
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children are also unique there's the
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shame and embarrassment of being
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homeless being a teenager is hard enough
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without the instability and poverty of
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homelessness we try very hard to provide
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for the needs of children of all ages at
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our shelter we want them to be able to
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participate with their peers on sporting
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teams and going to summer camp and if it
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means getting them address or a tuxedo
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to go to the prom we can do those things
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for them but the most important thing we
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can do is provide them with a stable
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safe home to go to home to every night
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when people first arrive at a shelter
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they are typically exhausted they are so
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relieved to simply be in a place where
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they can sleep safely we treat all of
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the people who come to us with dignity
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and respect and for some people it's
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been a very long time since they've been
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welcomed into an environment where they
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know they can relax rest and recharge
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the change that we see in people after
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only a couple days can be quite
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remarkable once people arrested we
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connect them with our case managers we
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have social workers that work
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individually with every person that
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stays with us at our shelter shelters
00:11:00
are so much more than just places where
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people sleep and eat our case managers
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are working with people to set goals
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with them and figure out how they're
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going to meet those goals creating a
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customized plan around housing and
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employment and helping them overcome
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some very basic benefits think about
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this what if you had apps
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lutely no identification to prove who
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you were one of the things we often have
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to start with when we work with people
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is helping them get a photo ID a birth
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certificate a social security card all
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of those things are necessary before we
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can help them move on to connect to
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getting employment and housing and other
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benefits that they may need we're very
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fortunate our shelter that we have
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spaces where our amazing partner
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agencies can come on-site to deliver the
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supportive services that our residents
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need our residents can access primary
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health care dental care mental health
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care and substance abuse counseling all
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without the barriers of transportation
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and cost they come right to us under our
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roof and while we offer tremendous
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number services of services and we're
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very proud of our outcomes
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last year eighty percent of our families
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transition successfully to permanent
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housing we know that we can do better
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last year in November an amazing group
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of community members got together for a
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summit on homelessness this was
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organized by the Greater seacoast
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coalition to end homelessness of which
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I'm a member and we got together and
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gather the community together to help us
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talk about what are the greatest
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challenges that we face in the work that
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we are doing out of this day and a half
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summit we identified nine priorities
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that will now drive the work of our
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coalition for the next three to five
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years just to give you a quick example
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of one of the priorities that were so
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excited we've already started working on
00:12:55
is something called a community care
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team that we've seen seen implemented in
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other communities successfully what this
00:13:03
is is a group of people coming together
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to look at the people who are frequently
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cycling through emergency rooms and
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creating a customized plan to deal not
00:13:12
only with their medical needs but their
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housing needs as well so we're already
00:13:16
having conversations with the local
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hospitals about this we'll keep working
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to improve identifying these priorities
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but in the meantime direct service
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providers will continue to deliver care
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to the most vulnerable people in our
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but we can't do it alone there are
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several ways you can help every shelter
00:13:38
has a wish list of items you can go on
00:13:40
the website and check out the things
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that we need you may have some in your
00:13:44
home already or you could get some
00:13:45
things while you're out shopping and
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drop them off most shelters rely on
00:13:49
private contributions to fund their
00:13:51
operations at our shelter 3/4 of our
00:13:56
entire budget comes from private
00:13:57
donations from individuals and
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businesses another way you can help is
00:14:01
that government funding can be volatile
00:14:05
and for those that cannot personally
00:14:07
give you can advocate among your
00:14:09
legislators to help support the funding
00:14:13
for shelters that provide such a
00:14:14
critical safety net the last suggestion
00:14:18
is to volunteer we have an amazing group
00:14:20
of volunteers who come in seven nights a
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week to cook and serve dinner for our
00:14:23
residents there also may be
00:14:26
opportunities to put participate in
00:14:28
future community meetings like I
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mentioned earlier all of these
00:14:34
suggestions will have an impact the
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theme of today's talks for people like
00:14:39
this little boy and so many others don't
00:14:42
underestimate the power of your
00:14:44
involvement without you shelters would
00:14:47
not exist and thousands of people would
00:14:50
go uncared-for and unsheltered when you
00:14:53
go home tonight to the safety and
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comfort of your own home my hope is that
00:14:58
you'll reflect on what you've heard and
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not be overwhelmed or saddened but
00:15:04
instead be grateful for what you have
00:15:05
and be inspired and motivated to take
00:15:08
some kind of action
00:15:10
despite the magnitude of the problem you
00:15:14
can make a difference and together we
00:15:17
can break the cycle of homelessness and
00:15:19
transform lives thank you
