A man speaking on the phone walks through the Crown Street homeless encampment in Nashua Sunday during the relocation process for the residents, who were bused from the camp to the Motel 6 on Spit Brook Road.
A man speaking on the phone walks through the Crown Street homeless encampment in Nashua Sunday during the relocation process for the residents, who were bused from the camp to the Motel 6 on Spit Brook Road.
NASHUA — Following the arrest of a man who allegedly fired shots toward a homeless person, then a contentious public meeting at a neighborhood school, the city on Sunday bused about a dozen homeless people living in a camp off Crown Street to a local motel.
Relocating the people in the encampment is a temporary measure that allows them to continue receiving services despite the recent expiration of “several COVID-related assistance programs, including the state’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program,” according to Sarah Aissis, health promotion and communication specialist at the city’s Division of Public Health & Community Services.
The end of federal and state funding “has exacerbated housing instability among our most vulnerable populations,” Aissis said.
The cost associated with putting the people up in motels — in this case the Motel 6 on Spit Brook Road — is being covered from the state-administered Opioid Abatement Fund, according to Aissis.
The goal, she said, is for those struggling with homelessness to get into long-term housing. Although available shelter beds in Nashua, and much of the state, continue to be full, officials anticipate additional emergency shelter beds will open around Dec. 1.
Aissis said the city has added additional community health workers “to meet people where they are, and connect them with the appropriate services.”
Nashua police have also stepped up their outreach efforts to help connect people to the services they need.
“City departments and leaders are actively working together to find solutions for individuals living in the encampment,” Aissis said.
It was about 10 days ago that the incident that brought to the surface simmering tension between people in the homeless encampment and residents who live nearby occurred.
Police responding to a report of shots fired in the area of the encampment ended up arresting John Smith Jr., 31, of 5 Chase St., who was charged with three counts of criminal threatening with a deadly weapon and one count of falsifying physical evidence.
Smith, who was booked and later released on bail, was accused of firing three rounds in the direction of a woman during an argument over the ownership of the property around the homeless encampment.
While he later told police he never intended to shoot the woman and that he “never pointed the firearm towards” her, Smith agreed “his actions were ‘stupid,’ and he knew it after the fact,’” police said at the time.
About a week later, emotions also ran high at a neighborhood meeting city officials hosted at Dr. Crisp Elementary School, at which Mayor Jim Donchess said CSX, the firm that owns the railroad tracks and adjacent land, declined the city’s request to hold off on their scheduled maintenance and repair work on the tracks.
That development was among those that prompted the decision to relocate the camp residents on a temporary basis.
