City councilors discussed the increasing burden to the budget of the welfare department as the affordable housing crisis continues and deepens the needs of community members without a place to live.
At a meeting of the council subcommittee on finance, councilors learned that changes to the city’s welfare guidance may be necessary to ensure compliance with state law. In the past, the city could suspend an individual’s receipt of welfare assistance for noncompliance for up to six months. Finance Director Glen Smith told the committee state law allows suspension of a few weeks at most.
“Welfare is not no-strings-attached in most cases. If you’re receiving welfare assistance, depending — it varies from situation to situation — but there will be requirements on that. Either maybe a job search, housing search, applying for this, that or the other aid, and if you don’t do that then you can be suspended from the local welfare program,” Smith said. “That suspension has always been up to six months and we have recently just been told that that is too long and a suspension can only be a matter of weeks, not a matter of months. So we make those kinds of adjustments. It’s not a change to the RSA, it’s not a legislative change, but it’s a change in the interpretation.”
Councilors will meet Thursday afternoon with the council subcommittee on government operations and ordinances to discuss a recent ruling handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court pursuant to municipal recourse toward encampments and actions taken by officials in Manchester after that ruling came to bear.
An opinion issued by SCOTUS in April and decided at the end of June in the case of Grants Pass v. Johnson et. al. stated it is not considered cruel and unusual punishment to arrest or ticket people for sleeping outside, even when there are no alternatives available to them. Following that ruling, some municipalities have made changes to local ordinances regarding encampments in public places.
The City of Manchester enacted a revised ordinance that allows for the arrest of people for camping at any time of day, regardless of vacancies at local shelters, according to a city staff report. That revision also allows police to fine individuals up to $250 for violations of the ordinance. Before that revision, officials in Manchester had only banned camping in public areas between sunset and sunrise and only enforced the ordinance when space was available at overnight shelters.
The ordinance already in place in Laconia states: No group of persons shall assemble for the purposes of remaining in an area for camping upon any portion of public-owned land or within a public right-of-way or public easement upon which is located a public highway, unless such assembly is held within a dwelling or other permanent structure or such assembly had been authorized by the Licensing Board after finding that the public health, safety or welfare will not be adversely affected. Those provisions do not apply to campgrounds.
“This is more of just an introductory item because welfare is a topic that is front and center right now in Laconia and also statewide. Communities across the state are looking at what they can do to help address the situation,” Smith said. “Ultimately, the city performs its welfare function in compliance of state statutes, RSA 165, under guidelines established by the council and in Laconia that translates into other guidelines pretty much reviewed by this committee.”
Ward 2 Councilor Robert Soucy, who sits on the finance committee, asked City Manager Kirk Beattie if the discussion regarding camping ordinance guidance was spurred by the actions taken in Manchester or by the Supreme Court ruling.
“We do have a no-camping ordinance already in place and we do exercise it,” Beattie said. “If it gets expanded or not, that’s something that we’ll have conversations on.”
And Ward 3 Councilor Eric Hoffman asked Smith if the city’s guidelines were implemented in order to meet state law requirements.
“Did we develop these guidelines basically just to meet what the RSA requires us to do?” Hoffman asked.
“Absolutely,” Smith said. “Welfare is a defined service, defined by RSA. It’s a small part of our overall response to the problems of poverty and homelessness and such, and we play our role in that, but we don’t provide mental health services — we’re not qualified to do that. We have no [social workers] on staff, but we know where they are.”
Stressors on the city budget stemming from the welfare department have been discussed several times among councilors at regular meetings. The city is spending more each year to meet the demand for welfare and to provide housing assistance and relief. The past year has seen the welfare assistance cost skyrocket to an average of $11,000 per month. The prior high over the last 10 years came in 2019 at just over $6,000 per month.
That money is spent on items including burial services, electric, propane and oil utilities but primarily on rent and shelter assistance. Rent assistance refers to assisting an individual to remain in housing they’ve already secured — the city spent $62,587 on that line item in fiscal year 2024, an increase from $38,546 the previous year.
“We all saw the budget and how much this welfare budget has gone up in the last year,” Hoffman said. “I’m not suggesting that we look for new ways to spend money but I think if this is going to continue being a growing portion of our budget, we should be careful that we’re going to spend money in places that are going to make the most difference.”
Hoffman suggested the council take a close look into welfare department expenses and said having a few housing units to use for those purposes might be more cost-effective in the long run.
“Have we explored alternative ways of temporary housing besides putting people in hotels?” Hoffman asked. “I can’t imagine that is the most cost effective way to temporarily house someone.”
And Ward 1 Councilor Bruce Cheney said housing development is the main obstacle that needs to be addressed in order to make a real impact on the problem.
“Part of the solution is long-term development of affordable housing,” Cheney said. “I don’t know that this council can get it done in a short period of time, but it has to be done.”
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