This past November, CSH partnered with the Greater Seacoast Coalition to End Homelessness to conduct a charrette focused on a thorough and thoughtful review of implementation strategies to end homelessness in parts of New Hampshire and Maine. The Greater Seacoast charrette was a structured, intense, one-day dialogue used to analyze, discern and ultimately decide a comprehensive action plan for the community to move forward with efforts to successfully tackle homelessness on the local level. The planning process for the charrette began in September. The Greater Seacoast Coalition to End Homelessness service area mirrors that of the United Way of the Greater Seacoast, encompassing all of Strafford County, New Hampshire, and 27 cities and towns in eastern Rockingham County, New Hampshire, as well as Kittery and Eliot in Maine.
The most recent Point In Time (PIT) count identified over 300 people in the region experiencing homelessness on one day in January 2014. Of those, 150 men, women and children were staying in Greater Seacoast’s emergency shelters and transitional housing programs, while as many as 60 or more remained unsheltered, and more than 120 were doubled-up with family or friends. Throughout the course of the year, more than twice as many people (over 800), experienced at least one episode of homelessness, staying in one of Greater Seacoast’s homeless shelters, including over 150 children under the age of 18. To read more about the challenges faced by the communities within the Greater Seacoast and the recommendations made by CSH to complement their efforts, access the Framework to Inform the Greater Seacoast’s Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness here.