Opening for comfort
Operation Blessing’s warming center to begin service Nov. 1
PORTSMOUTH — With fall looming and chillier nights on the horizon, Operation Blessing and the city have put the finishing touches on converting a temporary emergency shelter into a seasonal warming center for the unhoused.
The warming center will be available for people who are experiencing homelessness and will be open when the temperature drops below 25 degrees during the winter.
The small facility at the nonprofit’s Lafayette Road address was originally used as a makeshift overnight shelter during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tammy Joslyn, executive director of the social services organization, believes that the warming center, slated to open in November, is emblematic of the nonprofit’s mission to change one life at a time.
Operation Blessing staff, city employees and guests, including local housing champion and former elected official Ruth Griffin, attended a ribboncutting ceremony for the warming center on Wednesday. Though smaller than other Seacoast and Strafford County area warming centers, including one at neighboring Cross Roads House in Portsmouth that served as Rockingham County’s official warming center last winter, the facility will provide another option to unhoused people and those seeking a place to stay on freezing evenings.
“It feels more like a home,” Joslyn said of the upgrades.
The shelter previously contained enough space for seven beds but has now been increased to 11 beds. Project contractor Martini Northern added a new shower and bathroom, a staff lounge and a doorbell to the facility. The series of renovations included connecting the building to the city’s water and sewer lines.
Joslyn touted the space as having
room to grow, noting Operation Blessing has ordered bunk beds for the site that have not yet arrived. In the past, the nonprofit’s shelter has served people dropped off by police departments, those who couldn’t get a bed at Cross Roads House and others from outside the city who couldn’t find shelter.
“We can’t stop thinking of always growing and evolving,” she said. “Even more than the beds, what do we (have to) do to go those extra steps to help people find housing?
Elise Annunziata, Portsmouth’s community development director, is the manager of the city’s Community Development Block Grant program, the funding of which comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. According to the city, Portsmouth’s Community Development Block Grant program funded the warming center’s water and sewer line connections, while grant funds have also supported the facility’s operations since the beginning of the pandemic.
The city program has allocated around $170,000 to Operation Blessing for the shelter in total, Annunziata stated.
“It’s dignified, it’s safe and it’s sanitary,” she said of the warming center.
As fall and winter approach, Joslyn expects to see an uptick in Operation Blessing assisting unhoused people, either through the warming center and shelter or through other general assistance.
Her projections are based on an increase in gear distributed by Operation Blessing to people experiencing homelessness and from seeing people lose both Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and rental assistance.
Last month alone, Operation Blessing provided food assistance to 279 families. In August 2022, the nonprofit helped 93 families with their food needs.
Joslyn yearns to see more housing units constructed or identified to support people experiencing homelessness. A roof over one’s head, she said, can oftentimes help people kickstart efforts to take on other problems in their lives.
“To have that change, you’ve got to go someplace where you can have an address and have roots and then start building on all those things,” she said. “That is so crucial. We’re putting BandAids on so many things when we really need to find solutions.”
Mayor Deaglan McEachern lauded the warming center at the ribbon-cutting and noted that the city has spoken with parties interested in possibly developing similar services for the unhoused population. The mayor, however, stated state government funding for such services isn’t enough, using Cross Roads House as an example of an organization that is sustained through private funding.
“I think Portsmouth is always at its best when you say, ‘Hey, how can we be the conduit so that people’s good ideas can come to life?’ That’s definitely … one of the reasons (the city of Portsmouth) purchased the Community Campus is to keep those nonprofits going,” McEachern said. “Those are very needed services that the city is not really in a position to provide. But we can provide a building. We can provide the administration to make sure that that building is run well. We’re always going to look at opportunities to help people solve problems in the community. That’s what we believe our position is when it comes to providing those types of services.”
Operation Blessing’s warming center will officially open on Nov. 1 and run through April 1, 2024. Its hours will be from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., though additional hours could be added during dangerous weather conditions.